Soul Tale
by ArcticDragonSlayer
Summary: What if FairyTail turned evil? Several of FairyTail's strongest mages leave to start their own guild finding new allies with the strange ability to turn into weapons. FairyTail / Soul Eater Crossover rating starts T but turns M in later chapters (deleted and re-uploaded)
1. Chapter 1

**Hi folks, this is my first fanfic so please bare with me. Hope you enjoy it**

Chapter 1 – Goodbye Fairytale

It was early morning in the town of Magnolia and a young blonde wizard was walking towards the Fairytale guild hall. Standing on a roof watching her, was a man in a dark suit. "So" he said "this is the Lucy Heartfillia I've boon told about, I wonder if she's as strong as I've heard".

A few minutes later Lucy arrived at the guild, ever since Lisana returned from Edolas a few months ago, the guild started to take a turn towards a darker path. She entered the guild and sat down with a group of the few people left that weren't becoming nasty, "ah Lucy your back, how did the exam go?" asked the red haired equip mage Erza Scarlet, "very nicely!" replied Lucy "as of now, I am officialy an S-class wizard". She smiled triumphantly to herself as a few days ago she had entered the S-class exams as a special exception by the magic council. "Congrats Lucy, we all knew you could do it. Though I still don't understand why the master wouldn't enter you" said the raven haired ice make wizard, "thanks gray" replied Lucy "and I have no idea why, to be honest, when I asked him he sneered a little as if I was below such a position." "Well that's not like gramps at all" started the Fire dragon slayer Natsu Dragneel in a worried voice, "but is it me, or is a lot of the guild getting meaner lately?" "wow, understatement of the decade there fire ball", they all looked around to see that it was Laxus who had said that, he had come over with his thunder legion all of whom were now congratulating Lucy in their own way.

Before Lisana's return Lucy would have been worried if these four came to talk to her, but Team Natsu and the Thunder Legion had become close friends recently as they had each realised that the other group hadn't begun to change. A few moments later they were joined by the only two other people in the guild to remain normal; The Iron dragon slayer Gajeel Redfox and the sky dragon slayer Wendy Marvel, along with the exceeds that always accompanied them. "Does that mean it's time?" asked the young girl, "yes I think so Wendy, now that I'm S-class we can finally leave" replied Lucy with yet another triumphant grin. "Dam council rules" started Laxus, "having to wait until we had 3 S-class to start our own guild, if I had had to endure many more insults from these losers I'd have fried them all!"

There and tehen, all 10 wizards and 3 exceeds marched into the masters office and handed in their resignations, which the master accepted with a sarcastic laugh and the comment "I doubt you'll last 2 months without Fairytale, oh well, it'll be fun watching you fail". The group stood outside the guild hall and cast their minds back to all the good times that they had had. Slowly, one by one they all turned and walked away, leaving the guild and their former comrades behind.

"Huh" huffed the shadowy figure on the rooftop, "how the mighty have fallen, so much for the 'great' Fairytale." He huffed again but before uttering another word, a blinding light filled the sky and the figure was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Glyphs**

It had been several hours since the group left Fairytale and after deciding to walk, as they still had no clue where to go, they came across some ruined pillars. "Come on Luce!" exclaimed Natsu, "we've been walking for hours, let's take a break!" "I'm afraid I find myself in agreement with Natsu" added Freed, "also, if you would permit my indulgence, I would like to take a moment to take a look at the runes and glyphs on these pillars, as a rune mage I may be able to translate them." Reluctantly she agreed, so the group sat down for a while.

Meanwhile, on the branch of a nearby tree, the shadowy figure had returned, "it's nearly time now Lucy, let's see if you deserve the title of S-class, but what's this, a potential enemy is nearby and your just sitting there...fool!". Knowing nothing of the shadowy figure, the group continued to rest, with Freed attempting to decipher the runes, when suddenly they started to glow faintly. Seeing this, the entire group apart from Lucy, gathered around Freed for an explanation. "Hmm" Lucy thought to herself "we're being watched, I'm sure of it."

Standing on a nearby hill was a group of three people watching the former Fairytale wizards, 2 girls, wearing light blue skinny jeans, a light brown leather vest top and a hat similar to a cowboy's and one boy, wearing a black suit. The main distinguishing feature about him was his hair, which was as black as his suit, but had three white stripes going horizontally through it on the left side, "look! The pictures are glowing!" said the shorter blonde girl. "Those are corruption detecting glyphs Patty, not pictures" replied the taller brown haired girl "that means they're corrupted, right kid?" "Yes" answered the boy referred to as Kid "it also means we must act, LIZ, PATTY!" as he exclaimed their names, the two girls said in unison "right! Weapon Transformation!" The two girls glowed glowed pink, jumped and transformed into a pair of silver pistols before landing in 'Kid's' hands. He held them upside down and began to move towards the wizards.

Guns Magic: Twin Concussive Blast Shot

He aimed the spell towards the group huddled around Freed, the blast knocked them out and sent them flying. The only one left standing was Lucy, as she was far enough away not to feel the full force. "So you want a fight huh? Alright then" declared Lucy.

Open Gate of the Lion! Leo!

Before her stood a man in a dark suit (A/N a lot of that around lately) with orange, spiked up hair and green tinted shades. "You called princess?" he said, "come on Loki, we're going in together" replied Lucy. The spirit smiled and nodded in agreement, but before they could move they heard;

Guns Magic: Explosive Shot

Reacting quickly, Loki dodged and Lucy held up her palm

Star Force Shield

The shot hit Lucy's shield and was harmlessly deflected away. "It's time Loki," she exclaimed. He nodded and the two readied themselves.

Fist of Regulus

Heaven's Fist

The magic both used collected around their fists, causing them to glow. Loki went in first, his punches forcing Kid to dodge and weave, eventually he stepped away to what he thought was a safe spot, but Lucy, using impressive speed, was there ready, punching him directly in the face with the full magical force of her spell. Kid was sent flying, but using his hand was able to flip himself back onto his feet. Looking at his opponent, Kid realised that Lucy was stronger than she looks. "That's it" he exclaimed "I'm ending this now!" He moved his left foot back one step, bracing himself for the backlash of his next attack, crouched slightly, raised both his guns and pointed them towards Lucy. A new and darker magic circle appeared at the end of the barrels and black lightning like energy started to spark around them. Lucy could tell she was going to have to deflect Kid's next attack with one equally as powerful. Ever since Lisanna's return, Lucy had been training in secret with a special master to learn ancient and lost celestial magic, which was once of the main reasons she was able to make it to S-class. She moved her legs slightly apart to steady herself, raised both her hands and crossed them, one over the other, still pointing towards Kid.

Reaper Guns Magic: Reaper Death Shot

Celestial Radiance

Kid fired a pair of black energy shots that left a skull shaped smoke clouds when they left the barrel, as they travelled they tore up the ground because of the amount of shear magic power they contained. Lucy's spell was a beam of light with the intensity and heat of the sun. It was so hot that it turned the soil and rock beneath it into little more than ash. Before the two spells could strike one another, the shadowy figure that had been watching since the beginning, jumped between them and yelled;

King's Shield

The spells collided with the shield, exploding and creating a cloud of smoke and dust. Then, just as they thought they had obliterated the unknown man, they began to make out a silhouette in the centre of the cloud. Whoever it was appeared to be just stood there, when they heard a single word shouted at them: "FOOLS!".


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Fool**

Loki was stood staring at the slowly dissipating cloud of smoke, he had been too far away to help his master in that final shot but the second he heard "fool", his feet became rooted to the spot. He had a feeling he knew who had stopped the attacks and if he was right, then this person was exceedingly powerful. "Fools!" the shadow in the smoke shouted, "is this how your generation greets potential new allies? By striking them with spells strong enough to kill if not obliterate them?" The smoke cleared to the point where the man's face was visible, the instant Loki saw it he exclaimed without thought "Cal?"

Several of the knocked out wizards had regained consciousness and had realised what was happening. "Yes indeed Leo, it's good to see you again" started Cal, "And it is a great pleasure to finally meet face to face Miss Lucy Heartfillia." "You know me?" asked Lucy with an increasing sense of worry, "oh indeed I do, you are Miss Lucy Heartfillia, daughter of Jude and Layla Heartfillia, an S-class wizard and, until a few hours ago when you quit, one of the top ranked members of the Fairy Tail guild." Lucy's sense of worry was getting greater and greater with almost every word he spoke.

"Now" began Cal once again, "no doubt you desire an explanation and rightly so, but first let us awaken your comrades." "Already on it" said Laxus, he woke up the remaining wizards by passing a small static charge through them, shocking them awake. The only exception was Wendy, who Laxus woke up very gently. This is because over the past few months, he and Wendy had grown much closer, in fact he thought of her as his little sister and didn't want to hurt her.

Once they were all awakened and brought up to speed, Cal prepared to tell his story when Loki stepped in. "It's been a long time Cal, you look well, though your new attire will take some getting used to." "Yes" replied Cal, "it is rather drab isn't it, sadly it was necessary for my stealth to be successful, now however," he raised his hand and clicked his finger, his suit instantly changed colour, becoming brilliant white. Then, out of a puff of smoke, a white top hat and a white cane appeared, he placed the upon his head and decreed "there, much better."

"Now then" Cal started "my explanation, I know I appear to be a normal human, but in fact" "you're a celestial spirit" Lucy interrupted, "when you changed your clothes I could sense it." "nice going princess!" said Loki, "but he's not just any celestial spirit, he's said to be the right hand of the king and one of the most powerful of us all," "FOOL!" Cal shouted, pointing his cane at Loki before he could say anymore, "that is for me to divulge not you. Now as Leo was saying I am no ordinary spirit, though 'right hand of the king' might be pushing it, that being said my legend is most known in the 12th century. My full title is 'Divine Celestial Sword of Kings' and my name...is Excalibur, but you may call me Cal." "Excalibur! As in the sword of legend!? The almighty weapon of the legendary King Arthur?!" exclaimed Grey, "but how? You're not a sword." "Oh?" replied Excalibur, he smiled and began to glow white, he jumped, glowed brighter and brighter, until he transformed, into a shining gold long sword. "And now?" he asked, his voice somehow emanating from his perfectly smooth golden blade, "I am here for one reason and one reason alone Miss Lucy, I am here with the purpose of making a contract with the one and only human on earth, powerful enough and worthy enough to wield my power...and that person my lady, is you!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Excalibur**

"You want to make a contract with me!?" exclaimed a shocked Lucy, "yes I do" answered Cal "together we will" but, before he could finish Kid shouted "NO!" Everyone turned to look at him, the looks on their faces revealing that they had forgotten he was there. They were even more shocked when Kid dropped his guns and they transformed into women. "Professor you can't be serious! They've been corrupted, the glyphs prove it! You can't contract yourself to" "FOOL", Excalibur shouted, his cane now pointing at Kid. "I had thought you smarter than that, do you truly believe that I do not fully understand these glyphs and their function? Look at them, tell me what you see." Kid looked at the glyphs that Cal was pointing at and answered, "They're glowing, indicating that the people near them have been corrupted." "No" Cal replied, "they are glowing faintly. Showing that they have been near someone corrupted, but aren't themselves. They are immune, meaning that we should introduce them to your father, in fact Death City might be the perfect place for their new guild."

"Forgive the interruption" started Erza, "but did you say the name of this place was Death City? And why did he call you professor?" "Yes, it's called Death City," answered Kid "it was founded by the Grim Reaper Death, as a place to house the Death Academy, where special wizards are trained to locate, seek out and destroy a particular type of corruption. As for Cal, he was a professor there for a while." He thought to himself for a moment before continuing, "I think you might be right Cal. With the academy, our range is fairly limited, but if we had a guild, we'd be able to reach areas we previously couldn't. Very well, I shall take you to meet my father, you can learn more from him." "Now hold on a minute there stripy" said Laxus, with Kid flinching at the comment, "why should we want to meet with your dad? Who is he exactly?" Kid smiled rather smugly, "that's right I haven't introduced myself yet, what appalling manors. My name is Death the Kid and I am the son of the Grim Reaper Death."

Hearing that they all looked at each other in shock, before finally agreeing to go to Death City. While they made their way to Death City, Lucy finalised her contract with Excalibur. Frankly it was the best contract she had ever made. Excalibur's terms were that he was available 24/7, required less magical energy than Plue to summon and once summoned, instead of using Lucy's energy to remain he'd use his own. Meaning he could remain for months at a time if needed, as evident by his stint as a teacher. Once the deal was made, he told her that he would train her in his use in Death City but for now he would show her how to summon him. "Wait" Grey, whom had been listening said, "She doesn't need a key to summon you?" "Indeed not, we shall test this, I shall return to the spirit world, Lucy, you hold up your hand and use the words I have given you." She nodded in agreement, because even though he had not told her the words she knew what they were, like he had implanted them within her mind

Cal closed his own gate and returned to the spirit world. Lucy raised her hand and spoke;

Appear: Celestial Sword of Kings Excalibur

A light in the shape of a sword shone from her hand, the light burst and in its place, was Excalibur in his sword form. "As called I am here my lady." It took two days, but eventually Kid said "there it is, Death City." The whole group stood in awe, as the city was huge but had one very large building standing prominently in the centre. "Is that the academy?" Erza asked, "yes it is" Kid replied "It's also my father's seat of power so to speak, come on." He led them through the city to the academy and then into it. As they passed through the halls the group all thought how big they were, until they reached a giant door. The door was massive and had a huge picture of a skull on it. "This is the Death Room, where my father resides" Kid exclaimed, he placed his index finger on the door and appeared to draw an invisible picture on it, causing it to open. They moved through the door into what seemed like a humongous desert graveyard, complete with blue sky. Then they saw him, standing in front of a full length mirror, It was Kid's father and founder of Death City, the Grim Reaper himself, Death.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

There he stood, Death, the Grim Reaper himself, a being from myth and legend, just a few feet away. While they overcame their initial shock Kid had moved them closer to his father. He wore a black cloak that covered everything from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, and a white, rounded, skull shaped mask that did have eye holes, yet no eyes were visible. Then, something they weren't expecting happened, a large, white and extremely square hand popped out of Death's cloak. He raised it as if waving and said "Hiya gang, nice to meet 'cha." All the former Fairy Tailers face planted the floor with their legs in the air twitching. They had been expecting a dark, scary possibly even evil sounding voice, but what they actually got was a high pitch almost clownish voice and it caught them completely off guard.

"Bwahahahahaha!" laughed Natsu and Happy, both of whom had gotten so close to Death they were practically nose to nose. "This guy is meant to be Death?! Yeah right, I bet he's a fake!" Natsu declared, "aye!" agreed Happy "he's just a guy in a wierd mask, I'd bet my next fish on it!" The two carried on, inches away from Death, who already had an anger vain appearing on his mask, until he'd had enough.

Reaper Chop

Natsu and Happy were now face down on the ground, each with a large square indent from where Death had chopped them **(A/N think karate chop)**. "That's enough Natsu" said Erza who had regained her composure. "Ha" said Natsu, "we...got...the...clown...angry...proves...us...right" "Aye...sir" Happy wearily replied. Hearing their defiance, Death hit them with the palm of his hand, effectively slapping them, causing them to go flying across the room towards one of the thin black crosses. Natsu missed it and face planted the dirt again, Happy however smashed into the cross face first. For a few seconds time seemed to stand still with happy at a perfectly perpendicular angle to the floor. Eventually the cross gave way and fell over backwards, uprooting the bottom in the process. Happy flipped over and ended up on his back, completely dazed and probably with a concussion.

"NATSU! HAPPY! ENOUGH!" shouted Erza threateningly. Lucy stepped forward and said in a very apologetic voice; "Lord Death please let me apologise for the horrendous behaviour of those two" "Oh don't worry about it" Death Replied, "they remind me a lot of Spirit, one of my staff, they're both a bit...odd. Now then, I know why your all here, you have an immunity to the corruption and are wishing to start a guild here on the advice of the Celestial blade Excalibur." All their mouths hit the floor, it was almost like he knew everything. "No need to look so shocked" Death started, "this mirror behind me lets me see any of my people in the field. I was watching when my son mistakenly attacked you," he shot Kid a disapproving look, "I must say I was very impressed with your skills Lucy, having the ability to use such advanced and powerful celestial magic at such a young age is incredibly impressive." Lucy blushed slightly at Death's comment, "thank you lord Death, but if you don't mind my asking, what do you think to us building a guild in Death City? And what is this corruption everyone keeps talking about?" "Corruption is kinda like a sickness" replied Death, "It infects a host and begins to alter their perceptions, their beliefs even their personalities to a darker version of them. This much I know you've all seen within your former guild, but what you haven't seen is the final effect of it. When it has sufficiently altered the personality of its host, it begins to act on their souls and physical forms. They become effectively demons with a never ending hunger for human souls, the more they consume the stronger they become. I set up this academy to train special wizards to eliminate these demons." The wizards all nodded, trying to take in the flood of information, when Erza asked; "do these people have to be eliminated? Is there no way to reverse the change?" "Unfortunately no" a voice answered from behind the wizards.

Hearing footsteps behind them they turned to see who this new addition was, but they soon realised there was a second noise mixed in with the footsteps, it was a sort of ticking or clicking sound, kind of like a handle being turned slowly. That's when they saw him, a fairly tall man in his 30s, with white hair, a white lab coat and glasses. The coat appeared to have been sown together in strange places, giving the appearance of being different pieces of material attached together. This trend also continued on his face as he had a large scar going diagonally from the top to the bottom of his face, that appeared to have been sowed if not stapled together. What really surprised them was the source of the clicking sound. It was a large screw like object sticking out of his head, which he was turning using his hand. "We are able to reverse the corruption's negative effects on the body up to a certain point" he continued, "but once it manifests physically, it means the persons soul has been irreversibly corrupted and transformed into an evil soul, which we call a 'keyshin egg' ( **A/N sorry if i spelt that wrong).** At that stage they become demons and must be destroyed and their souls dealt with before harm innocents." "Erm..." started Lucy, "I know I'm gonna regret asking this, but how are these 'Keyshin eggs' dealt with? Oh and who are you by the way?" Death spoke first, "ah yes, this is professor Frank Stien, one of my teachers and a very powerful wizard, I asked him to attend today for two reasons; he's a brilliant scientist and I believe he'd be an excellent addition to your new guild." "Thank you Lord Death" Stein began, "as for your other question, the evil souls are dealt with by being consumed by our weapons, or should I say the people able to use the weapon transformation ability to become our weapons." Seeing the disgusted and horrified looks on everyone's faces he added "There's no need to be alarmed, these people are special, by consuming an evil soul they are able to break it down and convert it into power, kind of like a dragon slayer eating their element, allowing them to heal, restore their power and even increase their power further permanently." With all this new information, Lucy found herself thinking of the Fairy Tail guild and all her former friends and comrades, hoping that none of them would fall far enough that their souls would have to be eaten.

Natsu and Happy were sat at their impact site trying to listen to what was being said by Stein, well Natsu was even though he didn't really understand and it was starting to hurt his brain, Happy however had long since given up trying as he didn't understand a word. He was sat there looking around the room, amazed at how large it was. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, it was like something was twitching and wriggling just inside the hole that once was filled by the now rather deformed black cross. He looked closer and became increasingly happy as whatever it was looked rather like the tail of some kind of red fish. Grabbing it with both hand he exclaimed "Natsu! Look! I found a fish!" before pulling with all his might, pulling the unknown thing from its hole. Natsu turned around to look at the strange object Happy had found, it was roughly the size of a clenched fist, circular, a red colour and had several square 'scales' on it, "wow!" he said with a great deal of surprise, "that's the strangest fish I have ever seen! HAY GUYS! CHECK THIS FISH THING OUT!" he shouted the last part to get as many people's attention as possible, they all turned, most with a look of confusion or surprise at what Happy had found. "That" Kid said with a hint of worry in his voice, "is a keyshin egg, these markers house the evil souls of opponents my father was destroyed, but feared to allow to be consumed." Happy's eyes were the size of dinner plates and were gleaming like diamonds, "this looks so tasty!" and without another word he ate the soul hole. "HAPPY NO!" shouted Grey and Erza in unison but it was too late, he had already swallowed it. "So how did it taste little buddy?" asked Natsu, "erm.." Happy replied with a slightly sad look on his face "...it didn't really taste of anything". Everyone in the room besides Natsu and Happy were stood there staring at them with their mouths wide open and their eyes wide and blank, even Lord Death was stood there bemused by what just happened. Suddenly Happy began to hold his stomach and his cheeks turned a little green. "Ugh Natsu" he weakly started "I feel really strange", all the others noticed this, worry and fear steadily rising within them as to what might happen to Happy. "Don't worry little buddy, you'll be okay, come here" Natsu worriedly said with his arms wide open waiting for Happy to hug him, Happy wobbled his way to Natsu and cuddled up to him, clearly scared by whatever was happening. Then he felt a huge surge of power within himself, it was so far beyond anything he had ever felt before but before he had a chance to react, his entire body began to glow a light blue colour, the same colour in fact as his fur but it was as bright as a spot light and was getting brighter by the second. Before anyone knew it the light was so bright that both Natsu and Happy were completely engulfed by it blocking them completely from the view of their now terrified friends.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The light was blinding, everyone had to turn away and try to block it out, the only exception was Lord Death who was watching the light carefully, whispering to himself "could the legend be true?" Then the light began to recede, eventually the wizards were able to watch as it receded further and further, until only one figure was visible, Natsu. Happy was gone and Natsu wasn't the same as before, the clothes he had been wearing had been replaced by a suit of armour, it was red in colour and was adorned with gold images, which if looked at carefully appeared to be drawings of fire and dragons and fire. Then there was the back, it had a pair of red metallic wings that would've looked like they were made of feathers if they weren't so close. Being an equip mage herself, Erza could tell just by looking that this armour was incredibly strong, incredibly light and just as manuverable as his normal clothes, in fact she was a little jealous of his new armour. Natsu had started looking around shouting "HAPPY!? HAPPY!? WHERE ARE YOU?" Suddenly they heard a weak response, "N-N-Natsu? I feel really weird." It was Happy's voice, but it was distorted and sort of metallic, almost like Cal's was in his sword form. That's when Lucy realised, her eyes widened and she turned to Cal who nodded knowing what she was thinking, Happy had transformed into the armour.

Lucy walked over to Natsu who was still frantically looking and shouting for Happy. "It's alright Natsu" she said reassuringly, she placed her hand on Natsu's chest plate and gently knocked, "Happy? Is that you?" "Yeah it's me" he weakly replied causing everyone to look in shock, she placed her hand on Natsu's chest plate and gently knocked, "Happy? Is that you?" "Yeah it's me" he weakly replied causing everyone to look in shock, "Lucy I don't feel good." "I'm not surprised" she answered, "after all you just blinded us and transformed into armour, I'd be more worried if you felt fine." She smiled reassuringly, hoping that Happy could see it, in truth she was worried about the little blue exceed, when Stien stepped forward saying "so the legend is true?" "What legend?"asked Natsu with a mix of confusion and fear, "it's an old legend" answered Lord Death, "it tells of how the original dragon slayers possessed an armour as light as a feather but stronger than any known material, even dragon scales. It was believed to be some sort dragon equip magic, but the last slayer said to be able to use it died centuries ago." "Wait a moment father" spoke Kid, "if the ability was a form of equip magic then how has this happened? Correct me if I'm wrong but slayers in those days didn't have exceeds." "No they didn't" Death replied, "this appears to be the result of 'soul resonance'." Stien, Cal, Kid, Liz and Patty all nodded, the rest however just stood with blank faces, it wasn't until tumbleweed rolled past them that Cal said; "perhaps a bit more explanation is required" sweat dropping as he spoke. "Ah yes" began Lord Death, "Soul Resonance occurs normally between two or three people with a powerful bond, usually a weapon and his / her wielder. It is when souls of the persons in question began to resonate at the exact same frequency and in perfect synchronicity, the result being that the magical power of each person is reflected and amplified by the other, creating a huge increase in power." "The amount of power increase varies from team to team" Stien said taking over from Death, "an average team here would increase in power by roughly 100 – 200%. Our elite teams however, one of which is Kid's, usually increases by 300 – 400%. There is more to learn of resonance but that is for another time." The former Fairy Tailers nodded, they hadn't been expecting a lecture when they arrived but they were all quite interested by this new power. "What about us?" asked Panterlilly, everyone turned to the exceeds, "indeed" agreed Carla "if any slayer needs protection it is Wendy, now, if we were to consume one of these...horrific looking souls would we gain this power too?" Before anyone could answer the two remaining exceeds began to fly towards one of the other black crosses, "NO!" shouted Death causing them to stop, just then Natsu's armour began to glow once again and seamed to melt away, pooling on the floor it re-moulded into the shape of a cat. The glow faded and Happy was back, but he looked weak and sickly, the second Natsu saw him he rushed and picked him up to keep him safe. "As you can see" continued Death, "the effects of the Keyshin eggs are quite dangerous and until further study of any negative effects on young Happy are done, I cannot allow you remaining exceeds to consume any." The exceeds agreed reluctantly and returned to their slayers, "now" Death continued, I believe it is time you started your new guild, Professor Stien shall show you the way to the buildings we thought would be suitable, though they might need a little re-modelling. But before you go, I know you have yet to choose a guild master but I will need to know the name of your new guild." They all sweat dropped, with everything that had happened they hadn't even named their guild yet, when Laxus stepped up. "Isn't it obvious?" he asked, they all shook their heads, "when Fairy Tail hears about us they'll more than likely declare us their enemies, especially with this whole corruption deal. So I say we take the name 'Fairy Eater' to show them we're not afraid."

They whispered to each with smiles on their faces before agreeing it was the perfect name. "Very well" Death replied, "and one other thing, Death City is magically protected so that only people magically so that only people affiliated with it can locate it. As such you will need to ask me to contact anyone on the outside you wish to invite to your guild, is there anyone at the moment?" "Yes" replied Lucy as the others were thinking. She put her hand into her bag and produced a piece of paper with two names and some contact details on it. "I'd like to invite these two please" she said handing the paper to Death, "they were special entries in the same round of S-class exams as me and what's even better is that they're Dragon Slayers." "S-class slayers huh" said Laxus with a hint of surprise, "which elements are they?" Lucy placed her hand on the back of her head and laughed nervously, "that...I don't know, I wasn't allowed to watched their exams and when I asked they said it would be a surprise. All I know is they both completed their exams in record time." "I see" replied Death, "very well I shall contact them, anyone else?" "If I might" said Professor Stien, "I'd like to invite one of our elite three teams, specifically Soul and Maka, they are very capable and have been taught by myself and former Professor Cal" "Yes that sounds like a good idea" replied Death. Kid stood there thinking for a moment before saying; "we'll join too." Everyone looked around with a hint of surprise on their faces, "we've always worked well with Maka and Soul and since they'll be up against corruption, having two of the academies elite teams wouldn't be a bad idea." Death thought to himself for a moment, nodded and said "alright then, I shall have Maka and Soul join you at the new guild if they accept. Now off you go, and welcome to Death City, Fairy Eaters." With a smile of pride on their faces they turned to follow Stien out of the room. It took about 30 minutes to get to their new guild building but once they arrived they got a pleasant surprise. It was the size of a nobleman's manor house, 3 floors high and had 2 rooms each side of the front door **(A/N think 2 semi detached houses, about that wide)** , it even had a garden at the back. "Here it is" began Stien, "10 years ago it belonged to a wealthy and influential businessman, he was a great friend to the academy, but what we weren't aware of was his affiliation with a dark guild. When the guild was destroyed documents were found that proved he not only gave financial support but had committed several crimes himself including rape and murder. When the evidence reached Lord Death he was a little less than pleased, as you can probably guess from the structural damage he ordered an assault and captured him, last I heard he was rotting in a Fiore jail cell." Moving inside they found the tell tale signs of a battle long since past, that being said, the building only really needed a little repair work, some re-modelling and some decorating and it would work nicely. Stien continued once he had looked around a little, "we've organised some builders to come the day after tomorrow so you have a chance to decide what needs doing, but for now we've set up some temporary accommodation for you. It's a hotel about ten minutes away back towards the academy, no doubt after your long trip and everythiong that's happened today you'll be in need of rest, just let me know when you're ready and i'll lead the way." They all nodded, then split up to investigate their new home.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 – Guild Master**

It was a little after 1pm on the day after they arrived and all the Fairy Eaters had returned to their new guild hall, (if it could be called that yet) after a much needed night of relaxation. They were all excited and brimming with energy to get the guild up and running, when Grey decided to be the voice of wisdom and said; "I don't know about you guys, but I think we should get this whole Guild Master situation sorted out, so I propose Lucy gets the job." Lucy's eyes widened in shock, "ME?! Wow, I...wasn't expecting that, I'm honoured really, wait, if we're throwing in names what about Laxus? He was next in line in Fairy Tail and Makarov had been training him for years." Hearing Laxus' name Freed was about to agree emphatically when Laxus categorically replied "No!" This surprised everyone, especially given the whole reason behind the fantasia incident was for Laxus to steal the title of Master, "I'm sorry" he continued, "but I can't accept the position. After I was cast out after fantasia I had a lot of time to think. I realised that the burning desire I had to be guild master had started me down a very dark path, I mean I forced my friends to fight each other for Gods sake, Hell I even used the Thunder Palace and Fairy Law spells to try and take out the whole town! So no, I can't and won't take the title of Master until I've proven..." he looked down at Wendy, "...to everyone that such...evil, will never take hold of me again." Everyone was watching Laxus, each one with a hint of pride and admiration at what was just said, apart from Freed who was very nearly moved to tears and Wendy, who was so proud of the man she had come to love as her big brother thatg shw was actually crying with joy.

The whole guild stood in silence and awe, still completely transfixed by the humility Laxus just showed. After a few seconds Happy, who after a night of rest still felt ill but not even half as ill as yesterday, said "wow, Laxus has turned really nice huh Natsu?" "Yeah he has" replied Natsu, amazed that this was the same Laxus that had nearly killed everyone in Magnolia. Gajeel thought to himself for a few moments before saying "hey, what about that Death guy? He's definitely strong, could he be guild master?" Natsu and Happy both flinched slightly, remembering the impact from the Reaper Chop. "That's probably not a good idea" an unknown female voice said, "Yea he's not really the guild master type ya know" an unknown male voice agreed. The whole guild spun on the spot to see the two unknown figures standing in the open doorway. The female had long brown hair tied up in pigtails and was wearing a white blouse with a red tie, a black knee length coat that zipped from the top to just below her stomach, a short black skirt, ling white socks and thick soled black shoes. The male had spiky brilliant white hair and was wearing a yellow and black jumper, red chino trousers, yellow and white trainers and a white headband with the word 'soul' and a strange emblem sown into it. "Sorry to just jump in like that" the female started, "hi my name is Maka Albarn, I'm a scythe myster, it's nice to meet you all." "Yeah sorry, it wasn't really cool of us to just interrupt" the male agreed, "hey I'm Soul, yes that is my real name and I'm a weapon, how's it going?" Realising that they were the two students they had been waiting for, the guild welcomed them happily and introduced themselves **(A/N I won't do the introductions now, makes more sense for me to do it when my OC's arrive...in my mind anyway lol)**. "Oh, that reminds me" Maka said, "Lord Death asked me to let you know Lucy that those two Dragon Slayers you wanted to invite have agreed to join and are on their way, apparently it will take them a week or so to get here," with an smile Lucy replied "perfect! Hopefully by then we'll have the guild up and running...most of it anyway."

Everyone returned to the guild master topic and stood in silence, pondering to themselves about who would make the best guild master. Until Natsu broke the silence by saying "I agree with the stripper," "what was that Flame Brain!?" replied Grey angrily, "you gone deaf Snowflake face?" "you looking to start something Charcoal breath?" "Maybe I am Ice Princess." The two were now forehead to forehead, glaring at each other with an almost murderous intent. Lucy put her hand to her head in disbelief and Erza, who had had enough and was giving off a far scarier aura, walked over to the two fighting boys and hit them on the top of the head with a gauntlet and a great deal of force. With both of their faces smacked into the dirt the two boys, with a great deal of fear in their voices, replied in unison "very sorry". It took a moment but Natsu managed to get up so he could continue speaking, "as I was saying before the snowflake interrupted" he shot a murderous look to Grey, "I agree that Lucy should be the Guild Master, I mean the only reason we're all here together is because of her. Think about it, when...Lisanna returned," Natsu paused for a moment, showing all the former Fairy Tailers just how painful it was for him to talk about his childhood friend. "When Lisanna returned and the guild started getting nastier, it was Lucy who got more stick than anyone! But instead of hiding and crying like they all expected them to, she bore the hatred and worked dam hard to get stronger and stronger! Then on top of that shw worked out who hadn't been affected and brought us all together, she turned the most hated of enemies into the best of friends, Hell she even managed to reduce the amount of times me and Grey start to fight from once an hour to once a month! That's the sort of kind, caring and strong person we need to lead us!" Everyone was shocked, they had never ever heard Natsu speak so strongly or so admiringly about someone before, not even Igneel. Lucy just stood there, completely stunned by what she had just heard and the almost ruby redness on her cheeks showing she was just a little embarrassed. "Yeah, Blondie is perfect for it!" agreed Laxus, "the cheerleader certainly is strong, she'll do nicely" agreed Bixlow with his tongue out, "Lucy's so nice, she'll do great" agreed Wendy, "as much as I hate to admit it, she's one of the strongest people I've ever known, she'll make a fine leader" agreed Gajeel. One by one each guild member stepped forward and gave praise about Lucy, (apart from Maka and Soul who had only just met her), until the decision was unanimous, the very first Guild Master of the Fairy Eater Guild, would be the S-Class Celestial wizard Lucy Heartfillia.

 **Time skip 1 week**

Master Lucy was sat on a stool in the recently completed bar, taking a well deserved break. In the past week they had completed 90% of the renovation needed to the guild hall, begun construction of a guild dormitory, purchased any supplies that they needed as well as setting up contracts to ensure a continual supply. They also, thanks to Wendy and Laxus, now all had a guild mark stamped somewhere on their bodies, it was the Fairy Tail symbol, but the head had been replaced with a set of teeth that appeared to have bitten it off. To Lucy's surprise even Lord Death had turned up to help, not with the construction though, he had come to tutor Freed about the mysterious glyphs they had found, which were actually an ancient form of rune magic called 'Reaper Runes' which, as the name might suggest, was known only to grim reapers. Using this new magical power he was able to create two very useful things. First he enchanted a door that normally opened onto a brick wall so that if the correct word, phrase of action was used, depending on Master Lucy's and Lord Death's preference, the door would link with an identical door inside the Death room, allowing for instantaneous travel between the Guild and the Death room. The second thing he did was to enchant the newly constructed combat / training arena. His enchantment created a field around the arena that prevented any magic used within from escaping, meaning that any spectators as well as the surrounding buildings wouldn't be damaged. The field also had a second effect which was the repair of any property damaged by combat within the field, in other words the combatants clothes and the field itself would be repaired but sadly it couldn't heal wounds. He even set it up so that the field was activated and de-activated from the guild master's spectator chair. Lucy herself had been incredibly busy over the last week. She had spoken with the magic council to make them an official guild and to sort out job requests, she had created files for each member to help with any HR related problems, she had helped wherever could with the construction and renovation work and had been training with Cal to use his sword form correctly. She was lost in thought until she heard three familiar voices shouting from the training arena,

 **Roar of the Fire Dragon**

 **Roar of the Iron Dragon**

 **Ice Make: Canon**

followed by a fairly substantial explosion. Lucy sighed, hoping that those three hadn't gotten onto a fight and destroyed all of Freed's hard work. At that point Natsu, Gajeel, Grey and Freed walked into the bar area, Lucy geared up to give the scolding of a life time when Freed walked over to her, bowed slightly and said, "Lady Master, with the assistance of Natsu, Gajeel and Grey I have been able to complete the final adjustments and complete the rune field. I am happy to report that the training arena is fully functional and ready for use at your leisure." "Congratulations and well done Freed!" replied Master Lucy with a smile beaming across her face, "but could you call me Lucy, or even Master Lucy if you really have to, I'm still your friend after all." Freed bowed again showing he understood and walked away to get a drink and relax for a while. "So" Lucy said to herself, "the guild is taking shape and everyone is happy, good. Now, how should we test the new training ground?" Just then the guild's main doors, which thanks to the open plan design of the ground floor were still visible from another room, opened to reveal Lord Death and two other people which no one recognised, apart from Lucy, who recognised them as the S-Class Dragon Slayers.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Lucy walked over to the new arrivals with look of sheer glee on her face, "Yay! You're finally here! And thank you Lord Death for escorting them." "My pleasure, I quite enjoy visiting the guild hall" replied Lord Death, the male slayer stepped forward "It's good to see you again Lucy and thank you for inviting us." He had short light brown hair and light blue, almost icy blue eyes and was wearing a light blue T-shirt, a grey fairly figure hugging jacket that extended down to his knees but only zipped to his waist, **(A/N if you've ever seen or played Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core then think of Genesis' coat...but grey)** , and had leather stitched to the shoulders, dark wash blue jeans that were fairly loose fitting, black trainers and strapped on his back was a sword that was the same length as a katana but was straight. "Yeah, though you never told us you were planning on becoming guild master" said the female slayer. She had shoulder length dark blonde hair and green eyes and was wearing a light green V-neck shirt, a light blue denim coat, blue chinos, black socks and black converse shoes. Lucy put her hand on the back of her head and laughed, "Yeah I wasn't planning on that but the guild had other ideas. Oh! Speaking of the guild we'd better have some introductions." She took two of the gold keys off of her chain, held them out and said;

 **Open! Gates of the Lion and the Maiden! Leo and Virgo!**

Loki and Virgo appeared before them and Lucy said with a smile "Hey guys, could you go find all of the guild members and get them to gather here immediately, thank you! Oh and Virgo, no tunnelling please, we've only just built the place after all." Both spirits replied with "of course" and went off to find everyone. It took about 10 minutes for everyone to gather and once they had Loki and Virgo smiled and returned to the spirit world. "Hi everyone, thanks for coming so quickly. I called you all here because our final new members have finally arrived and I'd like everyone to introduce themselves, perhaps our new arrivals would like to go first." The male slayer stepped forward, "Hi, my name is Oliver Revan and I'm the Arctic Dragon Slayer, a pleasure to meet you all." Next up was the female slayer. "Hi everyone I'm Jennifer Codus and I'm the Storm Dragon Slayer, Hope we can all work well together." After that it was the rest of the guilds turn; "Hi I'm Natsu Dragneel and I'm the Fire Dragon Slayer", "I'm Happy and I use Aero magic and Armour transformation", "Hey I'm Grey Fullbuster and I use Ice Maker magic", "Hello I'm Erza Scarlet and I use Equip magic", "umm...I'm Wendy Marvel and I'm the Sky Dragon Slayer, it's really nice to meet you", "Hello my name is Carla and I use Aero magic", "How's it going, I'm Laxus and I'm a second generation Lightning Dragon Slayer", "Yo! I'm Bixlow and I use Divine magic **(A/N I think that's what it's called anyway)** ", "Hi there I'm Evergreen and I use Fairy magic and Medusa eyes **(A/N couldn't remember the real name** **)** "Greetings my name is Freed and I use Rune magic", "The name's Gajeel Redfox and I'm the Iron Dragon Slayer", "I am Pantherlilly and I use Aero magic", "Hi I'm Maka Albarn and I use Scythe magic", "Hey I'm Soul and I use Weapon Transformation", "Hello my name is Death the Kid and I primarily use Guns magic", "Hi I'm Liz and this is Patty and we use Weapon Transformation", "Hello I'm Frank Stein and I use Mimic magic."

Once the lengthy introductions were complete, Lucy realised that while everyone knew everyone else's name now, the former Fairy Tailers had no idea what the former academy students could really do and vice versa. She contemplated for a moment before getting a brain wave. "Lord Death could I possibly speak with you in my office?" she asked, Lord Death nodded and moved to follow her. Once she reached the stairs Lucy spun around for a moment and said "oh and everyone please stay here until I get back, get to know each other better or something." Lucy and Lord Death went into Lucy's office and closed the door, making the other mages wonder what they could be discussing. Everyone followed Lucy's instructions and chatted where they were for 10 or 15 minutes until Lucy and Lord Death finally emerged from her office. "Ok everyone" Lucy began causing everyone to become silent and look towards them, "I've spoken to Lord Death and we've come to a decision. Now that we've all introduced ourselves we each know everyone's name and magic right? Wrong! What we know is the names of each other's magic and that's not much good if we need to work together. So what we're going to do is have some sparring matches. If you lose you have to buy you opponent dinner, if you win you get entered into a draw to fight me. Beat me, or do well enough in the opinion of the Judges and you'll win a special prize, which you'll get an input in deciding on." Lucy looked at all of their faces and found flames in their eyes showing her that, as Natsu would put it, they're all fired up now! "Oh!" Lucy exclaimed, "Before I forget, I know it's kinda harsh of me but Wendy, Freed I'm afraid I must ask you not to participate. Wendy I need you as medical backup in case there's an accident and Freed I'd like you to monitor the rune field. I know you've given it the go ahead but given the amount of strain we'll be putting on it for its first real use I'd rather be safe than sorry." Wendy and Freed smiled and gave an understanding nod, they knew she was right though truth be told they had both been as fired up as the rest. "Tell you two what" Lucy said giving them a sort of motherly look, "since I'm the one stopping you from competing I'll buy you both dinner tonight, okay?" Wendy's and Freed's fake smiles instantly transformed into real, beaming smiles, or in Freed's case as close as he ever gets.

Five minutes later they were all at the training ground, excitedly waiting to hear who would be going first. All apart from Laxus who had used his speed to tell any surrounding homes and work places what was happening and not to be alarmed. Once he returned he found Lucy stood between Lord Death and Cal with Cal's top hat in her hand. It didn't take him long to realise she would be pulling names out of that to make it fair so he joined the rest of the guild outside the arena. "Right then" Lucy said with a smile, "it's time for the first names! But let's just remember this is sparring, you are to knock out your opponent or get them to surrender nothing more! Minor injuries are fine but," she turned to the thunder tribe, "Ever and Bixlow, your ocular magic is forbidden. Ok then, here we go!" she rummaged in the hat and pulled out a name. "First up we have...speak of the devil, Bixlow! And against him will be...Team Kid." Bixlow and Kid fist pumped the air and moved into the arena. "Both contestants ready? Weapon partners don't forget you are to remain on the sidelines and not interfere until your partner calls you, only then may you transform. Right on my mark, 3...2...1...GO!" Bixlow instantly stuck out his tongue and held his arms out wide and shouted "let's get him babies!" Several small wooden objects, that looked like pieces of a totem pole, appeared and hovered in mid-air around Bixlow, all repeating "get him" in high pitch voices. Kid watched carefully, analysing the situation and his opponent when suddenly one of the totems fired a green magic shot at him. He easily dodged the first shot which caused the rest of the totems to begin firing. He dodged shot after shot before shouting "Liz!" who immediately jumped, transformed and landed in Kid's waiting hand. He pointed the gun at one of the totems and exclaimed:

 **Guns Magic: Snake Shot**

The shot hit the totem between the eyes and split it in half, but instead of continuing straight forward like a normal shot, it curved and struck another totem, then another and another until they were all broken. "NO!" Bixlow shouted sadly, "Not my babies! Nooooooo ho ho ho he he he he hahahahahaha HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Bixlow's fake sadness was replaced with sarcastic laughter as he reached into a pouch on the back of his belt and pulled out smaller versions of his totems. "HAHAHA syke! My magic gives me complete control of my babies' souls! Destroy their bodies and I'll move them into new ones." He threw the mini totems into the air and several green lights moved from the broken bodies into the new ones. Kid decided to try something else so he called Patty to him and pointed both pistols at Bixlow. He fired his standard magic bullets one after another causing Bixlow to dodge and weave, but he wasn't fast enough and got grazed on his left shoulder and right thigh. "Defence mode babies!" he exclaimed, which made his totems glow until a small shield formed around them. Each totem then began circling Bixlow in different directions and at high speed creating a sort of shield **(A/N Hinata's defensive 8 trigrams 64 palm from Naruto Shippuden)**. Kid's shots continued to hit the shield having absolutely zero effect. "Alright then" kid said to himself, "let's see how this works" he pointed one of his guns at the shield.

 **Guns Magic: Canon Shot**

The blast hit the shield but did little to damage it. But Kid's eyes were sharp, he was able to tell that the force from that hit changed the trajectories of the idols for a moment, creating a split second gap in the shield which, if he timed it right, he'd be able to exploit. He steadied himself and prepared for his move. After a second or two he raised his right gun and pointed it towards his opponent.

 **Guns Magic: Canon Shot**

The instant Kid's spell left the barrel of his gun he switched so his left was now pointing at Bixlow.

 **Guns Magic: Concussive Blast Shot**

The second spell erupted from the barrel as the first reached the half way mark. Kid knew from the first time he met Lucy that if this worked Bixlow would be out for the count. The canon shot impacted the shield and once again the force caused a small gap to form just where Kid had predicted. The gap however started rapidly closing but the concussive shot squeezed through just before it did and detonated, sending Bixlow and all his idols flying. Once the dust settled Lucy could see that Bixlow was out cold so declared Kid the winner.

It only took the rune field a few seconds to repair everything before the next round could begin. "Let's see who's up next" Lucy excitedly said putting her hand inside Cal's top hat and pulling out two names, "next is...Evergreen VS...Laxus!" "Laxus! He he he..." Evergreen said nervously, as one of the Thunder legion she knew just how powerful Laxus was. She looked around and found Laxus was already in the arena waiting for her, even though she knew his strength once she entered the arena her determination kicked in. "I won't be as easy to beat as last time Laxus" she said trying to sound sure of herself, but as a Dragon slayer, Laxus' ears could pick up the subtle nervousness in her voice. He knew a prolonged battle would end up with Evergreen having physical and pride injuries, so he hatched a plan. Lucy activated the rune field, "you two ready? 3...2...1...FIGHT!" Evergreen used her wings to get up into the air, getting out of range of Laxus' close range attacks and releasing Fairy dust at the same time. Laxus didn't move an inch, he just stood there and watched her movements until;

 **Fairy Magic: Fairy Needles**

Evergreen's Fairy dust formed into 5 1 inch long needles and shot at Laxus like bullets. He stepped to one side causing all the needles to miss their mark, but Evergreen wasn't giving up.

 **Fairy Magic: Fairy Needle Storm**

This time the dust continuously formed into more needles creating a seemingly endless storm. Using his lightning enhanced speed Laxus was able to dodge by zapping around the arena, causing Evergreen to have to twist and turn to find her target. Once Laxus had determined the length of time needed for Evergreen to locate and aim her storm at him, Laxus zapped to a new position, sucked in the air, puffed out his cheeks and unleashed his Slayer breath attack.

 **Roar of the Lightning Dragon**

He angled the blast to force her to dodge downwards, which she did once she saw the blast coming towards her. In fact she had to use so much speed to dodge the lightning that she ended up at ground level. The next thing she knew Laxus appeared in front of her, using his hand like a claw from one of those seaside crane games to grab the top of her head. "I'm so sorry about this" he whispered so only she could her, knowing exactly what was about to happen she smiled at him and closed her eyes.

 **Lightning Dragon's Taser Claw**

The lightning shot through her body from Laxus' claw for about two seconds before stopping. Once it had Evergreen's body went limp from loss of consciousness making Laxus catch her with his free arm. Laxus was declared the winner and the rune field deactivated, so he picked her up bridal style and carried her over to where Wendy was waiting. After he dropped Evergreen off he walked back to the rest of the guild but found Freed waiting for him. "It was kind of you to allow her to show her strength before defeating her as painlessly as you could" Freed said with a smile that said he knew, "noticed that did ya?" Laxus replied "I didn't want to hurt my friend but it was the only to prevent more injury ya know." Freed understood, but replaced his smile with a look of concern, "and what of Fairy Tail, should it come to that?" Laxus thought for a moment before answering, "they've changed. Ever since baby Strous returned they've been getting darker and darker to the point where they effectively drove us all out. According to my sources they've been getting worse over the past week, the members have been acting more like thugs and vandals, some people have even gone so far as to call them a dark guild now. So yes they may be my friends, but if they try and hurt innocents or ANY of my comrades in this guild I won't hesitate to destroy them." Freed looked at his friend with pride before turning to follow him back to the other guild members. Laxus however was worried, he knew that if Fairy Tail got too bad his worst nightmare might come true and he might have to repeat his sins at the fantasia parade, he might have to try and destroy Fairy Tail.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

After the first two fights everyone was very excited to see who was next, even Bixlow and Evergreen, who Wendy had easily been able to wake up, had shrugged off their loss and were fired up about the next match. "On to round 3" Lucy exclaimed, "next up is...Grey vs...Oliver!" Grey was both excited and nervous as they entered the arena, excited that he got to fight someone who wasn't in Fairy Tail but nervous that his opponent wasn't just an S-Class mage, but an S-Class Dragon Slayer and Grey had enough trouble dealing with pyro brain. Then there was what Lucy had said, that Oliver and Jennifer had both completed their S-Class exams in record time. "So you're the Grey I've heard so much about" Oliver said snapping Grey back to reality, "I've heard some good things about you, I was hoping I'd get a chance to test your skills." "Likewise" Grey replied, "I've been wondering what you could do so this should be interesting." Master Lucy activated the field and began the countdown. "Ready you two? Ok! In 3...2...1...FIGHT!" Both fighters jumped backwards to increase the distance between one another, Grey knew he'd lose quickly if he held back so he assumed his standard casting stance and exclaimed;

 **Ice Make: Canon**

Ice instantly formed on his shoulder resembling a large bazooka or even an old cannonball firing canon. He used his hands to aim it at Oliver and fired, the force of which nearly toppling him backwards. Oliver did nothing to dodge and allowed the blast to hit him straight on, as the dust from the explosion swirled Grey wondered just how much damage he'd actually done when, as the dust began to settle, Grey heard a crunching and chewing sound. Once the dust settled Grey saw Oliver stood in the same place without a single scratch on him, eating the ice from his attack. "I have to say Grey" Oliver said swallowing his mouth full of magic infused ice, "your ice is certainly delicious and strong, if I wasn't a dragon slayer that used ice that would have done some serious damage." Grey sweat dropped, he knew Oliver was the Arctic Dragon Slayer but had hoped that meant he ate snow not ice. "Tell you what Grey" Oliver said, "to make it fairer I won't be allowed to eat your ice attacks...unless you hit me in the mouth and I do so accidentally, deal?" "Well..." Grey answered in an almost disapproving tone, "I don't like the idea of forcing a handicap on my comrades and friends...but I guess I have no choice, alright deal!" Oliver nodded and resumed a fighting stance, "I think you'll find this more to the point" he said before bringing his right arm across his chest with his fist closed and exclaimed;

 **Arctic Dragon's Shuriken**

Throwing his arm back to the right and opening his fist he sent 3 4 point star shaped shuriken at Grey, who rolled out of the way before cringing along with the rest of the guild. "That pun...was just not necessary" he said, Oliver just smiled and shrugged before unleashing 2 more sets of shuriken.

 **Ice Make: Knight Shield**

Grey formed a knight's shield on his left arm, blocking the shuriken and allowing him to move closer at the same time. As soon as he was close enough Grey exclaimed;

 **Ice Make: Knight Sword**

This time he formed a sword reminiscent of a medieval knight's in his right hand, which he used to attack Oliver. Oliver was able to dodge slash after jab after slash and even countered with some punches, that Grey blocked with the shield before Oliver decided that that was enough.

 **Arctic Dragon's Glacial Fist**

Ice wrapped around Oliver's fist and began to glow light blue, he aimed the punch at Grey who used the shield to block, but Oliver's fist just broke through the shield like it was paper and sent Grey flying. Keeping his sword firmly in his right hand Grey flipped back onto his feet and charged towards his opponent. Oliver dodged another couple of slashes before using his still glowing fist to back hand the sword, shattering it. Grey jumped back slightly startled by what just happened when he noticed Oliver sucking in air, having fought with and against Natsu hundreds of times he recognised it as a breath attack. Remembering the power of Oliver's last attack he jumped back again, slammed both palms onto the ground and shouted;

 **Ice Make: Quadruple Wall Barrier**

Four walls, each 1.5 feet thick and 15 feet tall with 2 feet of space between them rose from the ground between Grey and Oliver. This was a spell that Grey had been working on for a while, his ultimate defence, as each wall was just as strong as his full powered Ice shield. Oliver puffed out his cheeks and unleashed the strongest Slayer breath spell that Grey had ever seen.

 **Roar of the Arctic Dragon**

The raging beam of ice and snow impacted the first wall and shattered it like a dinner plate, the second lasted for a second before breaking, the third lasted 5 and the fourth lasted a full ten seconds with Grey watching as huge crack after huge crack formed and grew larger until the blast broke through. Grey tried to dodge at the last minute but the blast was too quick and painfully slammed him into the rune barrier. "Ow!" Grey weakly said wincing as he did, using the rune barrier for support Grey was able to just pull himself up with his other hand on his chest where the roar struck. Oliver walked towards him but Grey raised his hand and said "wait...wait a minute", he struggled to speak, his chest paining him a lot, "I give I give, Lucy! I officially surrender, I don't have an ice cube's chance in hell of winning." Lucy nodded and declared Oliver the winner but as she did Grey's legs gave out and he started to fall face first into the dirt. But Grey found himself stopping mid fall as someone had caught him, looking around he found Oliver's face looking down smiling at him. "You fought very well Grey" Oliver said still smiling, "few people have ever blocked so much of my roar. I doubt it'll be long before your S-Class yourself and, if you'd permit me, I'd like you to consider me a friend and let me help you to develop your already excellent abilities." Grey smiled and weakly said "sounds like a plan" before giving in and losing consciousness.

Oliver took Grey to Wendy, slightly concerned he may have gone too far and used too much power. Wendy looked at Oliver as he put down Grey and said, almost like she could read his mind, "you don't need to worry, we came from the Fairy Tail guild, this is how we always do it." She smiled at Oliver reassuringly who smiled back and nodded, before turning back to head for the spectators area. Standing next to Jennifer she whispered "so, was he as strong as you expected?" "No" Oliver replied also whispering, "he was far stronger than I expected. And not just physically either, their spirits are strong too, I doubt it'll take us more than a couple of months to get Grey and Natsu to S-Class," "yeah" she said, "after Lucy was kind enough to invite us to the guild because she liked us and thought we could find a home, not just because of our power, it's the least we could do." Lucy stood up with Cal's hat and shouted "well that was exciting wasn't it? Let's hope round 4 is too" she pulled the next two names out of the hat, "next up is...Erza! vs...Team Maka!" Erza, Maka and soul entered the arena with Soul staying on the side edge. Erza smiled and said politely "I'm rather looking forward to this, I wish you the best of luck." Maka smiled and nodded replying "yeah you too", before suddenly remembering Erza's magic, "Hey Erza, you said you used equip magic right?" Erza nodded, "huh" Maka continued "this will be interesting." "Ready?" Lucy shouted "3...2...1...FIGHT!" Erza summoned a sword and charged at Maka, she slashed horizontally and Maka rolled forward out of the way. Maka stretched out her arm and opened her hand

 **Reequip: Flame Scythe**

A reddish orange scythe with flames etched into the curved blade appeared in her hand shocking Erza. "A..A..A Reequip!?" Erza stuttered, "yep" Maka replied leaning on top of the scythe which was only about ¾ of her height, "if I get separated from Soul then I can use these, now let's see how you handle this!" Using one hand she brought the blade down to her bottom right hand side before rapidly moving it to her top left exclaiming;

 **Scythe Magic: Flame Crescent**

The movement launched a crescent shaped flame at Erza, who dodged and Reequipped into her Flame Empress Armour. She charged at Maka and attacked with her sword, which Maka blocked with the shaft of her scythe. The next few minutes consisted of Erza and Maka exchanging blow after blow with their weapons before Maka jumped back, held out her left hand and reequipped her Water Scythe, which looked the same as the Flame Scythe except it was blue. She raised both scythes and stabbed the blades into the ground.

 **Scythe Magic: Flame & Water Pillars**

A pillar of fire and a pillar of water burst out of the holes the respective weapons had created and moved towards Erza quickly. Reequipping at an incredible pace Erza dodged the attacks by equipping her speed armour, before charging towards Maka. Using a combination of her enhanced speed and sword skills Erza landed several hits to Maka before knocking the weapons out of her hands and knocking her to the ground. "Alright then" Maka said through gritted teeth, "let's do this Soul" "It's about time" Soul replied, he jumped and transformed before landing in Maka's hand where she spun him before standing him next to her. Soul's weapon form, as you might expect, was a scythe, he was about a foot taller than Maka, had a metallic silver shaft, a protruding metallic eye at the top and had a red and black zig zag pattern on the blade. "Let's do this!" Maka exclaimed.

 **Scythe Magic: Soul Crescent**

This time the crescent was made of a dark blue energy and was much more powerful than her previous attacks, but Erza's enhanced speed allowed her to dodge and move in for a counter strike. She moved to jab her sword at Maka who deflected it with Soul before countering with a slash of her own. For the next few minutes the arena was filled with the sound of blades clashing as Erza and Maka, at incredible speed, furiously attacked and blocked. Their speed was so great in fact that the other Fairy Eaters couldn't see all the attacks. Eventually Maka managed to strike Erza in the stomach with the back of Soul, before striking her again sending her flying. Refusing to give in Erza used her free hand to slow herself down and flip herself back onto her feet, before using almost Laxus levels of speed to appear in front of Maka, kneeing her in the gut. While Maka was winded Erza delivered a roundhouse kick sending Maka flying like she had a few moments ago. "Wow your good" Maka said wiping the edge of her mouth, "Looks like we've got no choice, Let's do this Soul!" "Right!" Soul replied from within the scythe. Seconds later Maka and Soul's energy levels rose to the point where Maka's clothes and hair were being lifted up like they were in wind. Having spoken to Stein a few times Erza recognised this as the beginning of Soul Resonance and knew that if she didn't act quickly she would lose. Rapidly she reequipped into her Titania Armour **(A/N the low cut grey one with wings)** and summoned a ring of swords around her, she spun them so fast that they appeared to fuse into one halo shaped blade. As soon as she could she fired it at Maka exclaiming;

 **Heaven's Wheel**

Nervously she watched as her attack made its way. Thanks to her conversations with Stein she knew that both the weapon and the myster were immobile during the first few seconds of Soul Resonance, leaving an opening for an attack. BOOM! The attack had hit something but thanks to the dust cloud Erza couldn't tell if it was Maka or the ground. The entire guild watched with bated breath to see if the attack had hit, once the smoke cleared they saw Maka and Soul, who had been forced back into his human form, lying on the ground dazed but still awake. Realizing this was her only chance Erza summoned a sword in each hand and flew as fast as she could to her downed opponents, placing the tips of the blades at each of their throats. Lucy declared Erza the winner, who grinned with relief and returned to her clothes before helping Maka and Soul up. "Dam your good" Soul said rubbing the back of his head, "thank you" Erza replied with a smile, "Your very good yourselves, I think we'll be able to work excellently together." The three smiled at each other and made their way to the rest of the guild to enjoy the next round.

Lucy sat on her chair and watched as everyone in the guild chatted and laughed together, even Grey who had just woken up was happily talking to everyone. "It seems your plan worked quite well" said Lord Death, "Indeed, everyone has become much closer, they shall make a fine team" agreed Cal, "yeah" Lucy proudly said, "I'll make this guild into a true family, stronger than Fairy Tail's wildest dreams." Still looking at the other members she found a pair of eyes staring back at her, with a smile of pride and admiration on his face, it was Grey. _Huh_ Lucy thought to herself, _Grey's always so handsome when he smiles like that...Whoa there Lucy! That's quite enough of that! This is Grey we're talking about...you don't feel that way about him...do you?_ Feeling her cheeks get warm and go pink she shuck her head getting a weird look from Cal and Lord Death. Deciding that the best way to forget about the thoughts was to lose herself in the fight she stood up and shouted; "Ok everyone! It's time for the next round." Picking up Cal's hat she chose two of the remaining four names and shouted "the next two will be...Natsu vs...Jennifer!" Natsu exclaimed "YES!" and literally jumped for joy as he had been really hoping to fight one of the S-Class slayers and Jennifer was the only one left. Natsu asked Happy to stay out of the fight as he was still training to use his new power, he didn't like the idea but Happy reluctantly agreed. Jennifer giggled, finding Natsu's jump kinda cute, like a puppy getting a new toy, she made her way alongside Natsu to the arena and stood in the middle. "So it's me and you huh Natsu" Jennifer started, "Lucy told me a bit about you, she says you're really strong when you get 'fired up', though she never mentioned the cute little jump." Natsu's cheeks turned the colour of tomatoes, he put his hand on the back of his head and stuttered "c-c-cute!? I-I-I was j-just excited cos the only o-other S-Class slayer I've seen is Laxus and...well I...I wanted to fight you and Oliver to s-see h-how I m-measured up." Jennifer giggled again "It's a good reason Natsu, but I'm afraid it was still cute," she playfully stuck her tongue out and Natsu went a little redder. _Well well what's this?_ Lucy thought to herself _has Natsu got a crush on someone?_ Wondering how this would affect the match Lucy decided it was time to begin and activated the rune field. "Here we go! 3...2...1...FIGHT!" she shouted making Natsu and Jennifer jump backwards. "You better not go easy on me Natsu" Jennifer teased before pointing her right palm at Natsu.

 **Storm Dragon's Gale Shot**

From her palm Jennifer fired a blast of gale force wind that hit Natsu directly on his chest, knocking him back about a foot onto his back. "Ow!" he moaned, "wouldn't dream of it", he sucked as much air into his slightly winded lungs before puffing out his cheeks.

 **Roar of the Fire Dragon**

He unleashed the inferno of his breath attack at Jennifer, who was able to leap out of the way thanks to the distance between them. "Wow! Nice one Natsu" she said turning to face him, when she looked she found Natsu already charging at her with his fists blazing.

 **Fire Dragon's Iron Claw (A/N I think that's what it's called)**

Jennifer dodged a frenzy of burning punches, up to this point she had just been trying to have fun with Natsu, but the look in his eyes told her he was very serious. Not wanting to hurt Natsu she was going to surrender until she realised that would make him angrier than being in pain, so she decided to use a combo that almost always knocks her opponents out. She let Natsu continue his punches until she dodged a left hook, leaving and opening so she made the air swirl violently around her fists and stuck with her right.

 **Storm Dragon's Tornado Punch**

Striking Natsu directly in the stomach she left him a bit winded but before he could react she hit him with her left, this time with more of an uppercut motion which lifted him off the ground slightly. Before he could land Jennifer uppercutted him with her right, this time sending the tornado around her fist into Natsu's chest, sending him high into the air. Using the wind to help her Jennifer jumped so that she was above Natsu, she extended her legs, put her feet together and started to spin.

 **Storm Dragon's Tornado Drop**

A tornado formed around her before shooting rapidly at Natsu, striking him just above his stomach forcing him to hit the ground with massive force, creating a crater where he impacted. Jennifer stepped out of the crater, took a few steps and turned around, hoping that would be that. Natsu however had different ideas, he climbed out of the crater and ignited his fists again. _Dam!_ She thought to herself, _I'm gonna have to immobilize him_ she put her hand behind her ear.

 **Storm Dragon's Lightning Spear**

The lightning formed into a spear shape in her hand which she threw, like Zeus hurling lightning from Olympus. It impacted just in front of Natsu's feet causing him to lose focus and step back in surprise. Seeing her chance Jennifer raised both palms.

 **Storm Dragon's Storm Chains**

A static charged tornado erupted out of each palm and wrapped around Natsu before attaching to the floor, completely immobilizing him. _There_ she thought to herself _that should be it right? Wait...what's he..._ she realised he was sucking in air for a breath attack, knowing the strength of it she knew she wouldn't have time to counter with anything but her own roar, so she sucked in the air, puffed out her cheeks and unleashed at the same time as Natsu.

 **Roar of the Fire Dragon**

 **Roar of the Storm Dragon**

The two attacks collided with incredible force, the blazing inferno of Natsu's fire battling against Jennifer's lightning infused, hurricane strength wind. It appeared to be a complete stalemate until Natsu's injuries and fatigue caused him to falter slightly, which Jennifer used as an opportunity, she pushed a little harder, overwhelming the fire, hitting Natsu straight on. Natsu was now laid on his back with his waistcoat torn to shreds and smouldering slightly. "Natsu please just stay down" Jennifer pleaded, "stay down?" Natsu inquired as he slowly got up, "Never! I AM NATSU DRAGNEEL, SALAMANDER OF THE FAIRY EATER GUILD! I WILL NEVER SURRENDER!" This hit Jennifer like a knife in the heart, barely holding back tears she decided she couldn't bare to hurt him anymore so was about to surrender when, "YOU TOTAL PYRO BRAINED MORON!" This shocked everyone as they turned to find Grey stood up with a look of absolute rage on his face. "HOW CAN YOU BE SO GOD DAM DENSE?! SHE ISN'T TRYING TO UPSTAGE OR HUMILIATE YOU, SHE'S TRYING HER HARDEST NOT TO HURT YOU! IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME THEN LOOK INTO HER EYES!" Not knowing how to respond he did what Grey shouted and looked into Jennifer's eyes and what he found made him feel like his heart had been put into a blender. The eyes he thought would be hardened and contain a battle lust really weren't, in fact they were watering to the point of tears and contained nothing but sadness, fear and pain. That's when it hit him, Grey was right, she was just trying to have fun with him. His heart broke a bit more and a horrible feeling in his stomach made him feel nauseous, _I'm...scum_ he thought to himself, before anyone did anything else he raised his hand and said, "Lucy, I surrender, Grey's right,I genuinely believed she was trying to humiliate me...but she wasn't...she was trying to have fun and get to know us a bit better...I'm...I'm scum, I caused my friend so much pain...Jennifer...I don't deserve someone as great as you as a friend and you shouldn't forgive me, but I'm sorry...I'm so very sorry. If it's any consolation my heart feels like it's been torn to shreds and my stomach feels really bad...I guess I liked you a lot. I guess it's too late for that, I..." Natsu stopped, tears were running down his cheeks and he couldn't bring himself to speak anymore. Lucy declared Jennifer the winner and deactivated the rune field, Natsu hung his head in shame and turned to walk away, thinking no one would want to look at him let alone talk to him for a while. Just as he turned Jennifer grabbed his scarf and the remains of his waistcoat and turned him around, he expected her to hit him or yell or something, but instead she pulled him into her arms and hugged him tightly. As she did she whispered, with tears rolling down her cheeks as she couldn't hold them back anymore, "you're not scum Natsu, I forgive you completely."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The guild watched in amazement as Natsu got redder and redder the longer he hugged Jennifer. Eventually the two broke apart and Natsu was met with the sight of Jennifer's red and puffy eyes from where she had been crying. Grabbing Natsu's hand Jennifer said "come on pyro boy, we need to have a chat...and get those wounds looked at." The moment she mentioned Natsu's injuries a wave of depression washed over her, noticing this Natsu squeezed her hand and softly said, "hey, it's okay, it's my fault for pushing you so far, you haven't done anything wrong." She looked at his face and found a warm, beaming smile directed at her, instantly making her feel better. Gray watched the two leave the arena and head for Wendy, still amazed by what he had seen. In the many years he had known Natsu he'd seen plenty of girls try and flirt with him, but without fail Natsu either didn't notice, didn't understand or didn't care. This was the first time a girl had ever managed to make Natsu blush with flirting and hugs, let alone make his face turn the colour of tomatoes. A few minutes later the arena had repaired itself and Natsu had been healed, but instead of returning to watch the next match he and Jennifer wandered off to talk privately. Lucy wondered if she should postpone the next round until they returned, but decided it might be a better idea to use the match to distract everyone from wanting to be nosy. She stood up, without Cal's hat this time and shouted; "alright everyone, this is the last match before we decide who fights me so let's hope it's a good one. Gajeel, Frank if you'd like to make your way to the arena." They did as asked but on his way the former professor turned and said, "Master if possible would you refer to me as 'Stein'? I've always preferred that to 'Frank'." Lucy nodded with a smile replying "certainly", while Stein positioned himself within the arena. Both Gajeel and Stein stared at each other silently while Lucy activated the field, "ready? 3...2...1...FIGHT!" Gajeel pulled his right fist back like he was going to punch.

 **Iron Dragon's Iron Rod**

Gajeel punched forward and as he did his fist and forearm transformed into a black iron rod, which extended forward at great speed heading straight for Stein's chest. Stein stepped to the side just enough to make Gajeel miss before grabbing the rod.

 **Mimic: Lightning Dragon's Taser Claw**

The lightning electrified the iron causing Gajeel to growl as he was electrocuted. He rapidly retracted the rod and smirked, "now I remember, mimic magic right? I thought that meant you could only mimic what you've seen in a small space of time?" "In many cases that is correct" explained Stein, "more advanced users are able to mimic spells they witnessed days if not weeks previously. I myself am able to mimic spells from up to 9 days ago, however thanks to experimentation I have created a form of archive within my brain, that allows me to store and recall spells I find of particular interest on an indefinite time scale. For example, this spell I witnessed when Death City was attacked by a full fledged Keyshin 2 years ago," he raised his hand and a dark red magic circle appeared.

 **Mimic: Madness Blast**

A sphere of dark red energy formed in the centre of the circle before bursting and firing a beam at Gajeel. Having little time to counter Gajeel simply crossed his arms in front of his chest and allowed the beam to hit. To everyone's surprise Gajeel didn't move an inch when the blast hit, it wasn't until afterwards they realised his skin was covered in dark silver metallic scales. "He he he how very interesting" Gajeel sarcastically remarked "let's see what else you've got."

 **Iron Dragon's Broadsword**

His right hand and forearm once again transformed, this time extending to form a black spiky sword shape, he charged at Stein and began slashing, forcing Stein to dodge and weave until;

 **Mimic: Reequip**

Stein summoned a sword and parried several of Gajeel's attacks before the two blades became locked together. Sparks flew as the two blades pushed together with great force, each trying to overwhelm the other, this moment of stillness allowed everyone to get a better look at the sword Stein had summoned, which appeared to be one of Erza's, much to her great surprise. At that moment Gajeel smiled and smirked "hehe, I've faced mimickers before and I know your weakness," he raised his left arm and sent another iron rod into Stein's gut, winding him and forcing him back a few feet, "you can only use one mimic at a time, so only one sword for you hehe." Back on his feet Stein smiled an almost evil smile and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, "true, but who says we need to." He raised his hand and a black magic circle appeared.

 **Mimic: Vector Arrows**

Seemingly from out of his shadow a group of 6 black direction arrow shaped arrows rose, leaving a solid black trail behind them. They fired at great speed at Gajeel who began to dodge, but had difficulty as the arrows had the ability to change direction mid-air. Gajeel had a brain wave and used his broadsword to parry and eliminate 5 of the arrows before jumping as high as he could into the air. The remaining arrow shot at him, but he ignored it and angled himself so that his feet were facing Stein and began spinning.

 **Iron Dragon Secret Art: Iron Drill**

His feet became a drill and he shot forward towards Stein, destroying the remaining arrow in the process. Stein smirked, since Gajeel took out the last arrow he could use another spell.

 **Mimic: Vector Plate**

A large black arrow appeared under his feet, making him hover about 1cm above the ground for a moment before sending him at high speed in the direction the arrow was pointing. Not being able to alter his course Gajeel impacted just behind the arrow, which faded away shortly after. Stein made a vector plate under the sword he had summoned, which had fallen to the floor after Gajeel's iron rod attack, sending it to him. Gajeel had a funny feeling he knew what Stein was planning so began sucking in air as stealthily as possible so Stein wouldn't notice. Just as Gajeel expected Stein created a series of vector plates that would get him behind Gajeel, before shooting him at him for the final strike. Stein stepped on the first plate and launched to the next and the next before reaching the one behind Gajeel, who quickly turned around and unleashed his roar.

 **Roar of the Iron Dragon**

The dark green magic shot at Stein, who thanks to his vector plate was moving directly towards it and couldn't change direction. He tried his best to block using his sword but it made no difference as the roar was too strong, forcing Stein straight back into the rune field and pinning him there until the spell was done. Once the spell ended Stein fell face first into the dirt, he weakly put his hands down and tried to get up, but while he pushed himself up Gajeel casually walked over and put his broadsword against Stein's neck, showing his victory.

Lucy declared Gajeel the winner while both he and Stein were checked out cy Wendy, Lucy put Gajeel's name back into Cal's hat alongside the names of the other winners, meaning she could be facing Gajeel, Laxus, Erza, Oliver, Jennifer or Kid. She was very excited to see who she'd be facing, so she stood up, with a giddy smile on her face and shouted "Well everyone," they all turned to look at her and listen in silence, apart from Natsu and Jennifer who still hadn't returned. "Those matches were definitely exciting right? But now it's time for the grand finale, one of you lucky winners will face me for the chance to win a great prize. That person shall be..." She put her hand into Cal's hate, at which point Jennifer and Natsu re-joined the group silently mouthing 'sorry' causing Lucy to giggle slightly, pulling out a name she continued "Oliver! So Ollie, will you accept the challenge?" Oliver smirked to himself for a moment as the only person that ever called him 'Ollie' was Jennifer, "me against you huh?" he answered, "oh I definitely accept, I want to see how much stronger you've gotten since your S-Class exam." Both combatants walked to the centre of the arena, Oliver on one side and Lucy on the other with Cal stood next to her. For this battle Freed had agreed to operate the rune field and Lord Death had agreed to be adjudicator. Once Freed activated the Runes Lord Death addressed Lucy and Oliver, "okie Dokey you two, remember this is both for pride and for Oliver to win a special prize if he wins OR if he loses but still proves himself worthy in my opinion. So, ready? 3...2...1...off you go!" Instantly they both decided the same thing, Oliver drew his sword and Lucy shouted "Cal!" "at once my lady" he replied transforming. The two blades clashed together a couple of times before becoming locked together, Lucy was ready for this however, since she was wielding Excalibur one handed she used her free hand to grab a gold key from her chain.

 **Open! Gate of the Bull: Torus!**

Torus appeared next to Oliver and attacked with his oversized axe. Oliver took one hand off his weapon, before breaking the lock between swords, deflecting the axe with his sword, parrying a few more blows from each before re-locking blades with Lucy. Knowing that move probably wouldn't work again he aimed the palm of his free hand at Torus.

 **Arctic Dragon's Blizzard Canon**

A ball of blizzard strength ice and snow hit Torus straight in the chest, sending him flying backwards, forcing his gate closed and sending him back to the spirit world. Without thinking Lucy let her eyes move to see Torus disappearing, which Oliver noticed and used to counter. He spun counter clockwise instantly releasing the locked blades and causing Lucy to fall forwards from the sudden lack of resistance. Lucy regained her senses just in time to parry a slash from Oliver, then another before rolling out of the way of the third. Realizing Oliver's sword skills were superior to hers Lucy figured it was time to switch to ranged attacks, she smirked having remembered the perfect spell to use to get out of range, a spell she had learned from her 'secret teacher' just before the S-Class exam. Oliver rushed in to attack again, but just before he struck Lucy exclaimed;

 **Solar Flare**

Her whole body instantly glowed brilliant white before giving off an incredibly bright light that filled the whole arena, blinding Oliver as well as everyone who was watching. "Dam!" Oliver said laughing to himself, "so that's what you were doing that day." Thinking back to his S-Class exam he recalled when he first met Lucy.

 **-Flashback-**

 _It was a bright and sunny day and Oliver was exploring around the outside of the test centre having left Jennifer talking to some other entries, when he heard two voices from around a corner then there was a bright white flash. He ran around the corner to see what had caused the flash and make sure everyone was ok, but when he turned the corner all he found was one teenage girl with long blonde hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a white sleeveless top with a blue cross on the front, a fairly short black skirt, black canvas shoes and appeared to have a whip attacked to her belt. "um...hi" Oliver started "are you ok? I saw that flash and came running...though I thought I heard two people." "No it was just me" the blonde girl replied, "I was just practicing for the exam." Oliver didn't believe her that it was just her but everything else seemed true, looking around there was nothing to prove someone else was there apart from a wet patch on the floor, like someone had spilt their drink. "Ah okay then" Oliver said with a smile, "your here for the exam too huh? Then I should introduce myself, I'm Oliver Reven," "Lucy Heartfillia of Fairy Tail, it's nice to meet you." The two started chatting and walked back towards the main entrance to take their exam._

 **-Flashback End-**

Snapping back to reality Oliver saw, even though his vision was still blotchy, that Lucy had summoned Scorpio. Just as he was about to charge Scorpio fired his sand blaster at Oliver's feet forcing him backwards a few steps. "Alright then, let's play ranged attacks."

 **Arctic Dragon's Shuriken**

He sent 3 waves of shuriken at Lucy who dodged all but the very last two, which she deflected with Excalibur, before swinging it behind her. Excalibur began to glow yellow and as it did she swung it forwards, scraping the blade on the ground. Once it had swung far enough and the tip left the floor the yellow energy formed into a slightly curved blade and fired at Oliver.

 **Regal Slicer**

Oliver used his blade to block thinking the energy would disperse or be deflected, but instead it was so strong that it became locked against Oliver's blade, causing sparks to fly from the point of contact. Seeing an opportunity Lucy quietly told Scorpio what to do, they both ran so that they were each on the opposite side of Oliver in a straight line. Realizing what was about to happen Oliver used the same spin trick he used on Lucy to send the Slicer into the rune field, but just as quickly Scorpio pointed his tail and Lucy raised her palm.

 **Sand Blaster**

 **Starlight Canon**

Silvery white star light formed into a ball and fired from Lucy's hand but Oliver was prepared and acted quickly.

 **Arctic Dragon's Defence Dome**

A dome that looked a lot like an igloo formed around him just in time to block the attacks. Realizing any external attacks wouldn't work, Lucy decided to try and attack from within the dome itself. She took another of her gold keys in her hand and whispered her plan to it before shouting.

 **Open! Gate of the Maiden: Virgo**

The magic circle appeared in front of Lucy but Virgo didn't, causing Lucy to smirk.

 ***inside the dome***

Thanks to his dragon hearing Oliver heard Lucy call for Virgo and instantly knew what she was planning. He stepped back to the edge of the dome and waited for a few seconds until the ground shook slightly and Virgo burst out, attempting to uppercut him. Using her surprise at missing to his advantage, Oliver clenched his fist causing it to glow before uppercutting her in the stomach.

 **Arctic Dragon's Glacial Fist**

The force of the impact sent Virgo smashing through the roof of the dome and into the air. As she began to fall Oliver jumped onto the roof of the dome and then into the air, his feet now covered in ice and glowing like his hands. Once he was at the right angle he kicked at Virgo.

 **Arctic Dragon's Glacial Kick**

With great force Virgo collided with Scorpio before impacting the floor, creating a mid-sized creator and sending both spirits back to their world. While his attention was on Virgo Lucy raised her palm again.

 **Star Shower**

The magic circle appeared in front of her hand firing numerous bright yellow 5-point stars at Oliver, striking him all over and knocking him to the floor, causing his dome to crumble at the same time. As he stood up Oliver laughed to himself at just how powerful Lucy really was, once he was up he decided it was time to finish it so he sucked in the air, puffed out his cheeks and released the attack that broke down all of Gray's defences.

 **Roar of the Arctic Dragon**

As the mighty roar sped forward towards her, Lucy stabbed Excalibur into the ground and cried;

 **King's Shield**

The roar impacted the yellow barrier with an intense force, as Lucy had only recently learned to use Cal's barrier it wasn't nearly as strong as it should be and wouldn't last for long. Once the shield failed that roar would wipe her out as she couldn't move from that spot while casting it, so she decided to put everything into one last attack. Taking Loke's key from her chain she brought it to her lips and whispered, "Loke, Virgo, Cancer, Torus, Scorpio, Aquarius, Sagittarius, please lend me what little strength you have left," she could sense her spirits were channelling their power into Lucy happily. She lowered the key so it was pointing at Oliver and unleashed one of her strongest spells.

 **Celestial Radiance**

Dropping her shield as she cast, a beam of yellow light equal in intensity and heat to the sun erupted from a magic circle in front of Loke's key. The blast crashed into Oliver's roar overwhelming it and pushing it almost all the way back to Oliver, before it began to resist and the two beams became locked together. With the two incredibly powerful attacks locked in stalemate it seemed the battle could go either way, until a certain individual shouted from the crowd "you can do it Lucy, I believe in you!" Feeling the heat rise in her cheeks as she started to blush Lucy knew exactly who was shouting, she looked to the crowd and saw she was right, it was Gray. Her blush only got worse when she saw he was stood up and had no shirt on (as per normal), revealing his muscular and well defined torso. A feeling of calmness, friendship (and possibly more) and encouragement washed over Lucy thanks to Gray's cheers, giving her the strength for one final push. So she gathered what little strength and magic she had left and sent it into her radiance blast, completely overwhelming Oliver's roar and hitting him in the chest. Once the spell faded Lucy dropped to one knee panting, "LUCY!" Gray shouted worriedly, "I'm okay gray, just not used to all my new magic just yet is all" she replied with a smile, before looking over to see if Oliver was still standing. He wasn't, in fact he was on his back splayed out like a star laughing "okay it's official, you are definitely powerful master, I definitely lost there." Taking that as a sign of defeat Lord Death declared Lucy the winner and Freed de-activated the rune field, the second he did Gray and Wendy ran over to Lucy to see if she was okay. "I'm alright Wendy just a bit tired, tend to Oliver first" Wendy nodded and reluctantly went over to Oliver leaving Lucy with Gray. Not convinced that Lucy was as okay as she was saying he moved to help Lucy up, who politely refused saying "seriously Gray I'm okay you don't have to worry." As she tried to get up her legs gave out and she started to fall forwards, straight into Gray's chest as he moved to catch her, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug to stop her from falling again and whispered "yeah I think I'll carry on helping." Lucy nodded and in doing so found herself snuggling more and more into Gray's shirtless chest. The warmth from his chest and the slow steady sound of his heartbeat made her feel safer and more secure than she'd felt in months, that's when she was hit with a sudden realisation, all the times she had looked out of the corner of her eye when he had his shirt off, all the times she'd had thoughts about him being handsome and all the times she'd felt sort of warm and 'fuzzy' when he had said something nice, there could be only one explanation, she had feelings for Gray Fullbuster in fact she would go so far as to say she loved him. Deciding it was time she got some medical attention, Gray picked Lucy up bridal style and started walking towards Wendy's first aid station only to be hit with a barrage of 'whoop's and wolf whistles, causing Lucy to turn a shade of red that could rival Erza's hair. Once they arrived they found Oliver and Wendy were already there along with a rather happy and rather amused Jennifer. "Awww, did poor Ollie get his butt handed to him by a girl?" she asked sarcastically, "oh ha ha" Oliver replied equally as sarcastically, "we both knew Lucy was strong, but I didn't know she was THIS strong, you are definitely worthy of S-Class Lucy." Going even redder than she already was (if that was humanly possible) Lucy quickly came up with a plan to get the topic of conversation off of her, "so Jennifer" Lucy started, "you seem very happy, was it something to do with your little chat with Natsu?" "well...maybe" Jennifer replied looking away with a hint of embarrassment. "Ohh! I sense a story here! Do tell" said Lucy with a squeal of excitement, "well if you insist" Jennifer replied "what happened was..."

 ***Just before Gajeel's fight***

After being healed by Wendy, Natsu found his hand being taken by Jennifer, leading him back into the Guild hall for a little private chat, since everyone else in the guild was watching the matches. She led him through the guild to the bar where the two sat down at a table. "So Natsu" said Jennifer "now that we're alone, do you feel like telling me what happened?" "erm...well..." Natsu stuttered getting redder and redder, "It's like I said in the arena, I just suddenly got the feeling that you were mocking me and weren't even trying and...well...my head got all fuzzy and I started seeing red." He looked at the floor, to ashamed to look her in the eye "Look at me Natsu" Jennifer said softly lifting his chin with her finger to reveal the sorrow and shame that filled his eyes. "You were right I wasn't going all out yet, but only because I wanted to see how close you were to S-Class so I could maybe help you that's all" "It doesn't matter now" said Natsu with tears streaming down his cheek, "when you first walked through the door I started having strange feelings, I liked you a lot, a lot more than I should after just meeting you...actually a lot more than I've ever liked anyone even Igneel my dragon, you looked so good...beautiful I think is the word that I got this strange warm feeling which turned to butterflies when I introduced myself. But then during the fight when we were playing around a little voice in the back of my brain said 'look at her, someone as beautiful as that would never like you! She's just toying with you, mocking you, she's not even trying' which made me feel...I don't know...stupid I guess, which made me feel so angry that I...lashed out..." Natsu stayed quiet for a minute with Jennifer completely stunned by what she was hearing before he continued, "I mean what I said in the ring, I know I'm scum now and I understand that you probably want nothing to do with me at all and for what I've done...I deserve that, if that's what you want the I won't bother you again I promise, you just have to say the word." The noises outside told them that next match had begun so they didn't have long but Jennifer didn't care, Natsu Dragneel, the famous Salamander had effectively just confessed his love for her and she had never felt happier. "Natsu" she said softly, "those feelings you had the first time you saw me, well I got them too when I saw you, I mean I'd heard of you before and seen pictures in magazines, but after Lucy told me about you and getting to know you when I arrived...well in truth I fell for you. So let me make this perfectly clear, YOU ARE NOT SCUM! AND IF I EVER HEAR YOU CALL YOURSELF THAT AGAIN I'LL...I'LL...OH I DON'T KNOW BUT IT'LL BE BAD." Natsu was shocked beyond belief, this woman, the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life had not only forgiven him but said she had fallen for him, he didn't know what to say or do, he just sat there staring at her, tears still falling down his cheek. Jennifer could see Natsu didn't know what to do, she had wanted to take things slowly and get Natsu to realise his feeling over time but instead she had made them explode like a nuclear bomb so, thinking she had gone this far so she might as well go further, she took the hand away from his chin and placed it on the back of his head, pulling him closer before she placed his lips on his and kissed him. Every last thought in Natsu's head exploded, her lips were soft and sweet and he didn't want her to stop, ever, so when she pulled away and looked into his eyes he lent forward and kissed her again, this time it was a lot more passionate and heated. By the time they both pulled away they were a little out of breath, Natsu was happier than he had even been so wiped away the remnants of the tears and asked cautiously, "so, what does this mean?" Jennifer giggled, "what it means pyro boy is that I love you", Natsu's face lit up like a Christmas tree "I love you too Jennifer" they lent in and kissed again before Jennifer noticed the lack of noise outside, "sounds like they've finished, come on we'd better get back before people start wondering." Hand in hand they walked back to the rest of the guild.

 ***Present time***

Everyone who had heard her story stood / sat there stunned "so, you and Natsu are in love huh?" said Lucy with a big smile and another squeal, "good! I'm so happy for the both of you! Well I get the feeling things are going to get interesting now," everyone nodded in silent agreement, still slightly overwhelmed by what they had just heard with one exception, Gray was silent but was thinking "so Natsu's found someone he loves huh? Man hell must've frozen over, oh well good for him I'm happy for him...not that I'd ever tell him. I just hope charcoal breath doesn't mess it up...now if I just had the courage to confess myself..."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Nearly 2 weeks had passed since the tournament and life in the guild was the same as any other guild. After his match with Lucy Lord Death declared that Oliver had more than earned his prize but would have to wait a while for Lord Death to locate it, Lucy had been okay in terms of injuries but had been completely exhausted after having used so much of her new magic in one go. Seeing her in such a state Gray ordered her to relax and take it easy for the next couple of weeks, an order she followed to keep Gray from yelling at her. He had spent the last 2 weeks making sure that Lucy not only rested but was as comfy as possible, he had done everything from getting her drinks to doing her paper work, hell at one point he had even given her a shoulder rub causing her to blush like mad as she enjoyed it. Then there was Natsu and Jennifer, who had gone on several dates over the last two weeks and ad officially declared themselves a couple though neither had marked the other as their mate yet. It was mid-day and Gray and Lucy were sat in the guild bar with a drink, Lucy with a strawberry milkshake and Gray with a Coca-Cola with plenty of ice, discussing the missions that several of the other guild members were on. "Wait, so none of the Thunder Legion are actually on an official mission?" asked Gray with a surprised look, "well Laxus is, Wendy asked him to help on hers but the others aren't no," replied Lucy "turns out that after Laxus was banished from Fairy Tail he spent his time setting up a network of spies and sources he could use to get information, he's sent Ever, Bixlow and Freed to three separate locations to gather info." Taking a sip of his drink Gray nodded, in truth he found it quite cool that Laxus had his own information network, like something out of a spy movie. Snapping out of his daydream he found that Fairy Eaters newest couple had come over and handed a job request to Lucy. "Hey Master Luce" said Natsu happily, "we'd like to go on this job please." Lucy took the flyer and looked it over, it was an S-Class quest that had come in a few days ago to intercept and eliminate a group of wizards of unknown size and magical ability, that had been using strange monsters to attack villages and towns. Leaning over to sneak a peek Gray saw the reward money and exclaimed "6 million jewel!" which made Lucy giggle slightly before answering "yep, but this quest definitely deserves the high payout," she turned back to Natsu and Jennifer, "so who's going? Just you two or were you gonna ask others?" "Honestly" Jennifer replied with her hand on the back of her head, "we...kinda haven't gotten that far yet, we got a bit too excited ." Lucy smiled "well normally I wouldn't mind you two doing an S-Class together, but this one is different. One of the towns they attacked had a group of five mages in it on their way back from a mission, three barely survived and are in the hospital in critical condition, the remaining two were hurt badly but were able to get away to report this information. Now none of these mages were S-Class but they were all known for being powerful, which is why the magic council has decreed that not only must there be an S-Class taking this mission but at least two other very powerful mages, so here's the deal, I'll let you go IF you go with at least two other people, if not three." Jennifer had a sudden brain wave and asked Natsu to stay there while she darted over to a table where Erza, Soul and Maka were chatting, after a few seconds they all nodded with smiles on their faces and followed Jennifer back to Lucy, "there, now there's 2 S-Class and 3 powerful mages going, that should cover it right?" Lucy thought it over for a minute before getting the approval stamp from behind the bar, she stamped the flyer and returned it to Jennifer, "ok your approved, just be careful all of you" they all nodded and went off to get themselves ready.

A few hours later the group was sat on a train heading for the town of Vidvale **(A/N that is completely made up)**. It had taken a good few minutes to convince Natsu to actually get onto the train, once it started moving his face turned green, his cheeks puffed out slightly and he tried his hardest not to let his motion sickness get the better of him...again. "Wow" said Maka with a slightly worried tone, "are you okay Natsu? You really don't look well" "I'm afraid you'll get little in terms of an answer aside from a few groans" replied Erza, "all of the Dragon Slayers we've ever known suffer from motion sickness, though Natsu's has always been far worse than the others. On previous missions Lucy was able to sooth him to sleep...or I was forced to help him a bit more...forcefully." "Huh I see" said Maka with a nod before turning to Jennifer, "how about you Jen? Do you get motion sickness?" Jennifer nodded looking slightly ill but only slightly, "yeah I do but only a little," she turned to Natsu and put her arm around his neck pulling him down so that his head was resting between her shoulder and chest, "here love, this should help." Whether knowingly or not Natsu put his arm around Jennifer's stomach and snuggled in, drifting off to sleep and making both himself and Jennifer feel better at the same time. Maka and Erza couldn't help but go "awe!" at the cuteness that Natsu was displaying, Soul however wasn't entirely sure what he was ment to say so just busied himself with a motorbike magazine.

 **Time skip 5 hours**

Once the train had pulled into the station and the group had disembarked the Dragon Slayers instantly began to feel better, in fact Natsu had never in his life felt so good after a train ride, even with Lucy and Wendy's help, he knew straight away it was because he was snuggled up to Jennifer so he kissed her on the cheek and whispered "thank you" in her ear making her blush slightly. Snapping back to reality Jennifer led the group into town to find their contact, a man by the name of Cambel, it didn't take long for them to find him as he was practically running toward them. "You're the wizards from Fairy Eater correct?" he asked, "Yes sir we are..." answered Jennifer before he interrupted her "Good because your targets have upped their pace, they'll reach town within the next few days," the group was shocked, the intel they had received told them that they would have at least 5 days to intercept their targets once they reached Vidvale. Over the next hour they acquired some provisions and got as much information about what they were up against as they could from Cambel, before meeting at the western exit to Vidvale. Setting off in a westerly direction they made their way through a fairly dense forest that stood next to the town, having spoken to Cambel about the surrounding landscape Jennifer and Erza had devised a plan to deal with their targets, instead of hunting them down, they would wait in a clearing about half way into the forest for their targets to appear before striking, the only downside what that the clearing was nearly a full days walk away, meaning their pace had to be fairly quick.

It took nearly 16 hours of fairly fast walking to reach the clearing in the centre of the forest, a clearing that anyone following the path would have to pass through. As soon as they arrived both Natsu and Soul collapsed face first around the tree line closest to the town. "We're here! Thank God for that! Seriously Jen can we...*huff*...take a break now?" Natsu asked while trying to catch his breath, "yes pryo boy we can, there's nothing to do now but wait for out prey" Jennifer replied with an almost predatorily look on her face, which slightly worried Maka who had seen it on her face. The group set up a small camp within the tree line with a very small camp fire so that the smoke from it wouldn't give away their position to the enemy, Jennifer had climbed into a one of the taller trees so that she could use her Dragon senses to keep a lookout, Soul had set up some sleeping bags for everyone, Maka and Erza had built the fire and collected some kindling in case it went out and Natsu had started cooking a simple meal, which surprised Erza immensely. "Wow Natsu, when did you learn to cook?" she asked, "about a week ago" he answered "I was told that a good date was to cook something for your partner, so I tried and it was...well..." "It was a total disaster!" Jennifer called over before returning to her lookout, "yeah that, so Jennifer helped me and showed me some simple tricks and I sort of experimented from there." A short while later Natsu served everyone seared pork chops with boiled potatoes and peas, leaving Erza, Maka and Soul stunned by how good it looked, even more so once they had tasted it and realised Natsu had used herbs and spices to flavour the food, even Happy who knew Natsu could cook was pleasantly surprised. Using his inhuman jumping skills to get to the branch where Jennifer was Natsu gave her a plate of food, getting a kiss back, before returning to the camp fire to eat his own meal. A few hours later the sun had started to set so everyone, including Jennifer, got into their sleeping bags to rest up for the difficult day ahead. Before settling down Erza looked over to where Natsu and Jennifer were sharing a sleeping bag and asked "Jennifer, shouldn't one of us remain as lookout?" Shaking her head gently Jennifer replied "no need, even if we're asleep Dragon Slayers can pick up the scents and sounds of potential enemies approaching a good distance away." Erza returned to her sleeping bag and everyone drifted off into a much needed sleep.

 **-Time skip 5 hours-**

The sun had yet to rise but everyone was awake and hidden within the trees as Natsu had picked up the scents of their targets, meaning they were mere minutes away. There was a great deal of tension in the air as everyone stood silently with very stern looks on their faces, waiting for the inevitable conflict to begin. That's when they saw them, a group of people emerging from the trees on the other side of the clearing, more and more walked out until there was 20 wizards walking through the open space. Jennifer jumped out of her hiding space and stood in the clearing facing the unknown people, "HOLD!" she shouted making them stop in their tracks, "I am an emissary of the town of Vidvale and of the Fairy Eater guild, I must ask that you identify yourselves immediately!" The unknown group remained silent for a moment before bursting out into laughter, "you wanna know who we are darling?" asked one of them sarcastically "we are the faithful that carry out the will of our Lord and bring destruction upon all unworthy souls." Though she was slightly surprised by the response it answered all of her questions, "so, you're the ones who destroyed those towns and villages, well we can't be letting you continue I'm afraid" Taking that as their cue to appear the rest of the Fairy Eaters emerged from their hiding places and stood with Jennifer ready to fight. The smile on the dark wizards faces grew even further, "Look! More pathetic souls! LET'S GET 'EM!" they all rushed towards the Fairy Eaters who spread out and readied themselves. Within seconds the night sky was lit up with magic circles and the sound of blades colliding as the Fairy eaters defended themselves against the onslaught of enemies. Being S-Class Erza and Jennifer were able to dispatch their opponents with a single move,

 **Reequip: Heaven's Wheel**

 **Storm Dragon's Gale Shot**

Natsu had a little more trouble with his fight as while his enemies weren't all that fast, three of them were water users and were able to block his attacks until he had had enough, used his attacks to force them together and unleashed his roar to finish them off. Maka had equipped soul in his weapon form and was easily able to defeat her opponents, without killing them, though not quite as quickly as Erza and Jennifer. With all 20 dark wizards knocked out the Fairy Eaters placed them all in magic cancelling cuffs and collected them all together, however not one of them had lowered their guard as the enemies they had defeated were nowhere near strong enough to do the amount of damage they were ment to have, when suddenly four strange figure appeared within the tree line. Whatever they were they didn't appear to be human but that didn't bother the Fairy Eaters in the slightest ass they had been expecting monsters from the very beginning. Then a voice was heard that shook Natsu and Erza to their very core, "GET THEM! AND BRING ME THEIR SOULS!" the familiar voice commanded making the creatures walk out into the moon light, making Maka become even sterner when she saw them. Their torso and head appeared to be basically human in design, but their legs were muscle bound, their arms were about three the length they should be with claw like fingers at the end and their mouths could open far wider than any human revealing sharp, almost shark like teeth. "He...He's controlling them!? How is that possible?!" asked Maka with surprise, worry and anger in her voice, "am I to take it you recognise these...creatures?" asked Erza, "dam right we do" replied soul from within the scythe, Maka was staring angrily "those" she started "are what Lord Death told you about. They are what happens to humans that consume innocent human souls and become corrupted to the point they become almost demonic. They are one of the reasons Death Academy even exists, so the rest of you stand back...they're ours." As she stepped forward the first of the creatures charged forward to attack Maka, It lunged with its claws which Maka blocked with the hilt of Soul before slicing the creature in half with the blade. The creatures body hit the floor, turned black and burst into black dust leaving a blood red floating sphere, it's soul, a Keyshin egg. The second creature charged and attempted to bite Maka, who jumped back and counter with Soul but the creature, having learned from it's fallen brother, quickly dodged and began to slash wildly with it's claws. The speed of the strikes left Maka barely able to dodge and block until she was able to find an opening and struck, she went to stab with the blade but the creature grabbed it and stopped it, which is what she wanted.

 **Scythe Magic: Soul Extension**

Soul's blade glowed light blue and rapidly extended to roughly twice its normal size, stabbing it in the heart, turning it black and making it burst. The final two creatures rushed in together, clearly thinking a joint attack would work better, Maka on the other hand hadn't moved an inch, instead she had poured a lot of her remaining magic energy into soul's blade for one final strike.

 **Scythe magic: Soul Crescent**

Thanks to the magic energy she put into the attack it was larger and faster than normal, Slicing both creatures in half with ease, leaving only the Keyshin eggs remaining. Make retreated back to the Fairy Eaters to recover when they saw a single shadowy figure remaining in the tree line, slowly walking out into the moon light. "So, what do we have here, two traitors, a slayer bitch, a school girl and boy who can turn into a stick, how pathetic! I doubt it will take long to kill you, then I can take your pathetic souls to my master" the shadow said as it walked. Then, as the moon light hit the figures face, Natsu and Erza felt their stomachs drop and their hearts stop for a moment, it was someone they hadn't expected, someone they once called friend or even brother. Natsu fought of the paralyzing shock for long enough to utter "A...A...Alzack?!"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Walking out into the clearing Alzack laughed at the shocked looks on Natsu's and Erza's faces, "What's wrong ash face? Cat got your tongue?" As he spoke his eyes drifted to Happy who didn't know what to think. Seeing the look on Natsu's face Jennifer instinctively walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder before softly asking, "You know this guy?" "Know him?!" Natsu replied through gritted teeth, "yea I know him, his name is Alzack and up until we left Fairy Tail I would've called him brother." Jennifer looked at the newest adversary and realised from what Natsu had just said why she recognised him, he was in an article in sorcerer weekly, one of Fairy Tail's two elite scouts / trackers, Alzack and Bisca. Turning back to Natsu she was about to say something to comfort him when she heard Alzack sniggering, she looked at him and found an evil, almost devilish smile on his face, "so, ash face has found himself a whore huh?" he asked still sniggering through his evil grin, "well I don't see a dragon slayer mating mark on either of your necks so that's all she must be. But don't worry, I'll make sure no one finds out that's all she is," in a flash he had drawn his guns and fired a pair of small magic bullets at Jennifer, in the split second it took for Alzack's shots to speed towards her Jennifer's vision became obstructed. It wasn't until a few seconds later when she came to her senses that she realised that the object was Natsu, who had taken the shots to protect her. As Alzack laughed at the display of affection a flood of shock and worry washed over Jennifer's face, but as she was about to check if he was alright she heard a low but angry voice from him that made Alzack stop laughing, "How dare you!" Natsu raised his head, opened his eyes and gave Alzack a look that froze his blood and awakened a fear he never knew he had. Natsu's eyes had become reptilian and held a burning rage that could match the flames of hell, the skin on parts of his face had turned into Dragon scales and he was giving off a huge amount of heat. "You..." Natsu continued through gritted teeth, "you were my comrade, my friend, my BROTHER!" all the while the amount of heat he was giving out increased bit by bit as flames ignited around his feet, "I would have happily given my life to help you and the others but...but now. Now you not only attacked me, but tried to KILL the woman I love just because I left Fairy Tail and met her?! For that Alzack...for that I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" As Natsu screamed the last words the flames around him erupted into a firestorm, all Alzack could see was Natsu's silhouette in the flames with red glowing eyes filled with rage and murderous intent. With the fear within him rising Alzack began to panic, he raised his now badly shaking guns and prepared to fire. Happy took that as his cue and began to glow as he flew full speed into the blazing inferno as Alzack finally fired.

 **G-G-Guns Magic: F-F-Full A-A-Auto**

He squeezed and held the triggers on both guns as they fired a hailstorm of magic rounds like he was holding a machine gun in each hand. After a minute the flames began to die down and Alzack released his triggers thinking he would see Natsu either dead or unconscious on the floor, instead however he saw Natsu stood in the same place adorned in a suit armour that hadn't even been scuffed by his attacks. Natsu remembered the training that Stein had given him and channelled his magic energy into Happy, as he did his metal wings extended. The feathers began to heat up rapidly, until they glow white hot giving off a stream of super heated air like a jet plane readying for launch, he slowly rose off of the ground until he was hovering about 2 inches in the air. Suddenly Natsu flew forward like a bullet being shot out of a gun, slamming his fist straight into Alzack's stomach winding him, before he could recover Natsu lit his foot on fire and kicked him in the back sending him flying towards the others. With a burst of speed that would put Laxus to shame Natsu appeared in Alzack's flight path and delivered a kick that sent him flying the other way where, thanks to another burst of speed, Natsu was waiting to deliver a fire dragon's iron fist uppercut, launching him into the air. With one final explosive burst of speed Natsu appeared in the air above Alzack and sucked in the air, As he did Happy began to glow and pulse, like a battery charging, until Natsu was ready and Happy was glowing solidly, just as Alzack began to slow and fall Natsu unleashed a huge burst of power.

 **Roar of the Fire Dragon**

Natsu's roar was far stronger than any he had ever used before and hit Alzack head on, making him return to the earth with a crash leaving a crater. Having used a great deal of magic energy Natsu floated down to the other Fairy Eaters, his legs giving out the second he landed but the impact never came, looking up he found Jennifer's eyes looking at him lovingly as she caught him. Suddenly they all heard a blood curdling laugh emanating from the crater, it sounded like two voices the first being alzack's but the second, well that was also male but much deeper and much much darker. As they all turned to look Alzack walked out of the crater still chuckling, his eyes were now totally black and he was emitting a black aura / energy, " **you've gotten stronger pyro** " he smirked, " **I'll let you win this round, but when we meet again your life will END! Your soul will be a gift for my master and your friends...will suffer greatly**." His black aura engulfed him before completely vanishing from sight, even the dragon slayers couldn't detect him with their enhanced senses. "Looks like...*huff*...we won..." said Natsu weakly as Happy returned to his normal form before both lost consciousness, Jennifer looked at him, she was worried if he was alright, scared by the image of him enraged, happy that they had won and finished their mission and felt a large sense of love both for the fire dragon slayer and from the knowledge that he was willing to put himself on the line to protect her.

 **-Two days later-**

After collecting their money from the client the group had rushed back to the guild hall to get Wendy, who luckily had returned from her mission, to heal Natsu and Happy. She had checked them over and diagnosed them as being exhausted from using too much magical energy at once and just needed rest, the rest of the group spent the rest of the day reporting on the mission's events, including Alzack's presence. Most of the Guild was pondering what to do in the bar, Lucy had locked herself in her office with Lord Death to consult the Magic council and Natsu and Jennifer were in Natsu's room as he had just woken up. "Hey pyro boy, how you feeling?" Jennifer asked softly, "a little beat but I'll be fine" Natsu replied with a smile before staring down at his feet, "Jen I...I just need you to know that what Alzack said was wrong, your most definitely mean more to me than he suggested and to tell you the truth I...well...I've wanted to give you my mark since we confessed to each other but I..I know to Slayers that's the same as getting married so I didn't want to, ya know, force you or anything." Jennifer smiled, giggled and shook her head "silly pyro" she said making Natsu look at her "I love you, you know that, I wanted to mark you too but I could tell you were holding back for some reason. As for the hold 'meaning marriage' thing so what? We are mates, now and always, there will never be another for me so I would love to carry your mark, besides, who's to say we can't have a proper wedding later on huh?" Natsu felt a huge wave of happiness and love wash over him, he wanted to say something loving and profound but came up empty so lifted Jennifer up so that she was straddling him on the bed before pulling her into a deep passionate kiss, his tongue licking her bottom lip wanting access, which she happily obliged allowing their tongues to dance and explore every part of each other's mouths. As things started to get more heated Natsu began to put butterfly kisses along her neck, finding a vain he traced it slowly with his tongue sending shivers of anticipation down her spine until me nipped and sucked on her neck, as if giving a love bite, bit allowing his teeth to pierce the skin just slightly. As he pulled away the small drops of blood from the tiny bite receded back into her neck as a black mark began to appear, forming into the shape of a dragon's head with flame on its forehead, he had marked her as his mate. **(A/N if you type 'buddyfight ancient world' into Google images it's the very first one, just with fire on its head** **)** A wave of ecstasy shot through Jennifer and almost like she was being driven to by some primal urge she repeated the same procedure on Natsu's neck, the mark forming into a dragon's head with a tornado on its forehead. Within seconds the two locked lips again and allowed their passions to run wild.

 **-Time skip next morning-**

Jennifer slowly woke from her slumber, her nose being filled with the slightly ashy scent she had come to love as she did. Opening her eyes she found she was snuggled into Natsu's bare chest while his arms were wrapped around her, making her feel safe and amazingly comfortable, looking down she found that not only were they both still naked but had slept on top of the bed sheets making her think back to the previous nights 'events'. As she remembered she felt herself heating up both because of a little bit of embarrassment and because she remembered his kisses, his caresses and the way their passions ran wild her lust to do it again began to build and boil over. Every urge in her body was telling her to wake Natsu up and 'start' again so she shifted ever so slightly to see the clock on the wall and saw that it was a little after 8:10 am, given how much she was enjoying snuggling up to Natsu she decided to let him sleep and shifted back to her original position, only to hear "well you're up early." Looking up she found Natsu's eyes looking at her filled with a huge amount of love, "did I wake you? Sorry I was just looking at the clock" she replied "that's okay Hun, but why don't you tell me what you were thinking about that was getting you so...excited?" Natsu asked with a slight grin "I...was thinking about last night, I guess I have another reason to call you pyro now, that was really hot" she answered seductively, "hmm yes it was, well since we're both awake and we don't need to go downstairs for a while," before Natsu could even finish Jennifer slid on top of him and locked lips with him, allowing their passions to run wild once again.

By the time Natsu and Jennifer had gotten washed, dressed and made their way downstairs it was nearly 11am, as they descended the stairs hand in hand they got some knowing smirks from Oliver and Laxus as well as some squeals of excitement from the girls as they noticed the new tattoos on Natsu and Jennifer's necks. One of the squeals came from Lucy who smiled and said "I'm so happy for the two of you!" The frenzy of congratulations lasted all the way through brunch **(A/N can't really call it breakfast at 11am lol)** until finally Master Lucy stood up and called for quiet, "I know we're all excited about Natsu and Jennifer's...erm...marriage?..Is that how it works? Either way I have an announcement I need to make. As you all know after Natsu and the others returned yesterday I spent the day contacting the magic council with Lord Death, apparently this isn't the first time they've heard rumours about Fairy Tailers committing crimes but up until now they've never had any proof. But now thanks to that mission report and a great deal of information dug up by Laxus' information network they have all the information they needed to make a decision. It is my duty as Guild master to announce that as of 9pm last night the Fairy Tail guild has been been re-designated as a dark guild, it's members declared criminals, Makarov Drayer has had his title of Wizard Saint revoked and a kill of capture order has been issued for all known current members of Fairy Tail." The entire guild took a moment to take in what had just been said before Lacus spoke up, "I should probably tell you blondie that my sauces have heard rumours that my grandfather is no longer guild master of Fairy Tail, though no one knows who is for certain." Lucy was about to speak before Bixlow jumped in "well that's all well and good, but I wanna know who's getting Makarov's saint title, got any ideas cheerleader...erm I mean master cheerleader" he added getting a dirty look from Lucy, "not yet" she replied. Gray stood there thinking about who he thought deserved the title, as well as thinking about his former comrades that had turned to the 'dark side', he couldn't help but get the feeling things were going to get dangerous and difficult.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

After Lucy's announcement about Fairy Tail the day continued like any other, the main topic of conversation of course being fairy Tail. That was until Lord Death walked through the front doors wishing to speak to Oliver. After the two exchanged greetings Lord Death said "I'm sorry it's taken me so long but I've finally brought the prize you won at the tournament, "with a slightly surprised look on his face Oliver replied "the tournament...wow, to tell the truth I had forgotten all about it." Chuckling to himself slightly Lord Death reached into his robe and pulled out a long, solid and slightly curved object wrapped tightly in a cloth that appeared to be very old and worn. "A long time ago" Lord Death started "before the discovery of the weapon transformation ability and mysters, reapers fought against the Keyshin monsters using special weapons forged on a unique and extremely powerful anvil using a form of glyph magic. Sadly both the anvil and the secrets of the glyphs needed to forge weapons were lost millennia ago, to this day only a handful of these weapons survive, but because of how powerful they are and the fact that so few people could survive wielding them they were sealed away, within seals and barriers so powerful it's taken me this long to open, get in and re-close them." Realising what Lord Death was holding Lucy stood up and asked, "If that's what I think it is then just how dangerous will it be for Oliver to wield it?" "It's not the wielding that will be dangerous" replied Lord Death, "it's the choosing. You see these weapons are so powerful that it would be potentially disastrous if the wrong person got them, as such they put potential wielders through a test of endurance while the runes scan the persons mind and soul for any traces of corruption and to determine if the individual is worthy. If the person passes both they will be the only person able to wield that weapon, if they fail however and it reflects them it will give off a blast of special energy that will separate the soul of the person from their body and hurt them enough to make them release the weapon." "I see" said Lucy looking down slightly while she pondered, "It's up to you Oliver, personally I believe you can do it but it's your call." Without even thinking Oliver nodded, stepped forward and held out his hand, Lord Death un-wrapped the weapon which turned out to be a jet black katana, with blood red tribal marking on the sheathe and a design that looked like a soul on the hand guard. "This" started Death still holding the sword where it was covered in the cloth, "is Seishin danzetsu meaning 'Sever Spirit', it is said that one cut from this blade severs a corrupted soul from its body, before the body's head is severed from its torso." Death passed Seishin danzetsu to Oliver who grasped it a little under the hand guard, he expected pain and discomfort the moment he touched it but instead there was nothing. For what seemed like an eternity nothing happened making Oliver think Death was joking with them, that was until the sword began to glow and white glyphs snaked their way up his arm, then without warning Oliver was hit by a powerful pressure, the power that the blade exuded pushing down on him like he was trying to lift an elephant or two with one hand. Oliver however, through sheer force of will was able to withstand the pressure and remain standing, though in truth his legs were screaming at him to let them buckle. Suddenly Oliver felt a strange sensation within his mind, as if someone or something was communicating with him by sending instincts into his head, it took a few moments to translate the message which turned out to be two simple words, 'draw me'. He held the sheathe in his left hand, grabbed the handle with his right and with one fluid motion drew the blade, instantly dispelling the pressure in the process, he looked at the blade and saw that runes were engraved into the metal and were glowing but getting dimmer by the second until they were glowing no longer. "It is over" said Lord Death in a happy voice "Seishin danzetsu has accepted you as it's one and only master, congratulations." Oliver smiled with pride as he returned the blade to its sheathe just before his legs finally buckled and he fell down to one knee, he held out his hand to assure the other guild members that he was alright saying he just needed to rest, Wendy helped him to his feet and took him to his room where he fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

Two days had passed and in that time Oliver had recovered and had gone on a mission with Soul so he could get used to using Seishin danzetsu and Jennifer, Maka, Wendy, Liz and Patty had gone on a mission together in order to spend some quality 'girl time' as they put it. It was early evening and the sun was beginning to set over Death City, Lucy was sat on the guilds flat roof watching the sun set while going over things in her head. She was so caught up in her own world that she never noticed someone else on the roof walking over to her until he said "so this is where you're hiding huh?" Jumping when he spoke Lucy looked over to see who it was and said "good god Gray! You scared the crap out of me!" he chuckled as he sat next to her, "sorry but you were in your own little world so not entirely my fault. What were you thinking about anyway?" Lucy looked out into the distance and replied "oh you know, about what has happened, what will happen, what..." she glanced at grey out of the corner of her eye "...Could happen, all kinds of stuff really." Grey nodded and was about to speak when Lucy turned to him and spoke up first, "Grey listen, I know that ever since the tournament you've been running yourself ragged trying to help me and make sure I was okay" "and yet you still managed to keep sneaking off to train with that secret master of yours" Grey interrupted with a smirk making Lucy blush. Regaining her composure she continued, "well...I...I just wanted you to know how much it ment to me, you pretty much were my knight in shining armour," at the last part she began to blush madly and tried to look towards the ground but grey lifted her chin with his finger and said softly, "it was my pleasure, I care about you Lucy, a lot and there was no way I could sit there and watch you struggle." The two were captivated by each others eyes, slowly they began to lean in closer, their lips parted slightly and their eyes began to close, but before their lips met they were forced to jump apart when Laxus shouted "Oi Blondie! You have a visitor." Practically running back into the guild to avoid comments from Laxus they found the remaining guild members meeting the visitor, someone they hadn't seen since the incident with the Orashione Seis **(A/N haven't got a clue if that's spelt right or not lol)** , Iron Rock Jura.

"Jura It's so nice to see you again" Lucy said excitedly to the wizard saint, "and you as well miss Lucy or should I say Master Lucy" replied Jura with a smile, "Lucy is fine Jura so what brings you all the way out here?" Jura composed himself for a moment knowing it may be difficult for some to hear what he had to say first, "as you all know Makarov Drayer, believed to now be the former master of the disgraced Fairy Tail guild," he stopped for a moment as Laxus looked uncomfortable at the mention of his grandfather, "has had his title of wizard saint striped. The council has several candidates in mind and have sent me to speak to two of those candidates who both happen to be part of this guild. The first is a Mister Oliver Revan who I understand is away on a mission at the moment, the other is someone the council has been very impressed by recently and that master Lucy, is you." "ME?!" exclaimed Lucy "yes indeed" replied Jura with a smile, "are you surprised? You recognised the changes in Fairy Tail before any other and got your comrades out of there, made a celestial contract with the legendary blade AND defeated Mr. Revan in a battle." Lucy stood there in shock, it's not every day you get told you could be a wizard saint and she had literally no idea what to say, Grey on the other hand did. He turned her around and brought her into a hug softly saying "you deserve this Luce you really do", as he held her in his arms Lucy began to melt into the hug, she loved the sense of safety and security she got when he hugged her. Eventually they broke the hug and Lucy looked up to see a caring smile on Grey's face, she would've happily stayed there staring into Grey's eyes had Natsu and Laxus not shouted in unison "OH FOR PITTYS SAKE SNOWFLAKE JUST JISS HER ALREADY!" Lucy was about to look away in total embarrassment but instead she found Grey's arm snaked round her waist and his lips locked on hers. It only lasted for a moment before he pulled away a little to say "I should have done that weeks ago, Lucy I...I love you," she stood there in shock, not only had Grey kissed her but confessed as well, she had no idea how long she stood shocked but it must have been too long as Grey was beginning to look down and pull away. Snapping to her senses she grabbed his shirt, which for once in his life he was still wearing and pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around his neck saying "I...I love you too Grey" before locking their lips once more. As they kissed time itself seemed to stand still allowing one moment to last for an eternity, but the moment was eventually broken by wolf whistles and applause from the remaining guild members. The rest of the evening consisted of the remaining guild members and Jura drinking, eating and laughing together, eventually everyone became tired and one by one went off to bed, even Jura who had been offered a room and had gratefully accepted, until only the new couple remained. Both yawning they walked up the stairs until they reached the floor that had Grey's room, he gave her a kiss and made to walk to his room but found Lucy was stood still and wouldn't let go of his hand. She said something so quietly that Gray didn't hear so he asked her to repeat and she said timidly "you could always...ya know...stay with me tonight?" Grey was slightly amazed by how quickly it had come to 'relations' until Lucy blurted out "sleep only!" He chuckled and kissed her on the forehead before agreeing, she led him up more stairs to the master's suite on the top floor, entering the room Grey was amazed by the size, during construction there was a debate as to what size to make it but he hadn't realized they made it this big, it was twice the size of his room if not more. Soon after Lucy came out of the bathroom in her pyjamas which consisted of a pair of comfy boxers and a t-shirt, seeing his new girlfriend like that Grey just stood there mouth open thinking how incredibly sexy she was. Coming to his senses he said "erm...Luce...you realize I don't have PJs, in fact I don't even own any", Lucy just looked at him and said "Grey you strip to your boxers and sometimes further all the dam time, so either strip to your boxers or strip naked and come and cuddle me." Knowing she was right he took his clothes off but left his boxers on out of respect and climbed under the duvet of Lucy's king size bed and laid on his back next to her. Within seconds Lucy had snuggled in resting her head between his chest and neck and her chest on his and his arm wrapped around her. A few moments later they drifted off to sleep feeling comfier and happier than they ever had before.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Morning broke over Death City and bright sunlight shone through the gaps in the curtains in Lucy's room causing Gray to stir and wake. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room to check if the day before had been a blissful dream, but when he looked down he found Lucy's sleeping form snuggled as far into his chest as she could since he was on his side facing her. A proud and loving smile beamed on his face as he thought about how he couldn't believe that Lucy would fall for him, especially given the first time they met Natsu stole his underwear in a guild brawl so he asked to borrow hers. Deciding he didn't want the moment to end he carefully slid down the bed so he was eye level with her and snaked his arms around her waist, closing his eyes he heard Lucy say softly "don't want this moment to end either huh?" Snapping his eyes open he was met with the sight of Lucy's chocolate brown orbs, "sorry Luce I didn't mean to wake you" Gray replied apologetically making Lucy giggle, "you didn't" she said through the giggles "I've been awake for a while but I was so comfy that I didn't wanna move." Smiling with contentment she snuggled in as far as she could brushing against something with her leg that she wasn't expecting, "erm Gray, remember how you went to bed wearing boxers? Well I think you stripped during the night," his eyes widened in shock, he lifted up the duvet hoping he hadn't but, much to his embarrassment, it turned out he had indeed stripped during the night. He blushed like mad and was about to repeatedly apologise when Lucy stopped him by putting her finger on his lips and pulling herself up so she was face to face with him, "Gray is I minded you being naked I wouldn't have given you the option last night." Before another word could be said she removed her finger from his lips and replaced it with her own lips, as they wrapped their arms around each other the kiss that was ment to be quick became much more passionate, to the point that Gray rubbed her bottom lip with his tongue wanting access, gaining him a moan of surprise from Lucy and another of ecstasy as she allowed access and their tongues danced and explored each other's mouths.

It was mid morning by the time the two dragged themselves out of bed and went downstairs, only to be bombarded by numerous amused and knowing looks. The morning continued with most of the remaining guild members teasing the new couple playfully and with Jura reminding Lucy that he needed an answer as to whether she was willing to be saint candidate. Suddenly and without warning Natsu dropped to his knees holding his stomach with a grimace of pain on his face, "Natsu!" several people exclaimed rushing towards him, only to stop in their tracks when they felt an increasing amount of heat radiating from him. Looking up his now reptilian eyes locked on Lucy before he spoke with anger in his voice, "it's Jen, she's hurt...bad!" Without another word he got up and began to head for the door, only to be stopped in his tracks when Lucy shouted his name, he turned his head slowly giving off a look that would instil fear into even the strongest of people and said in a low, angry and threatening voice, "you can't stop me Luce." Lucy wasn't even slightly fazed by the look Natsu was giving her, she confidently walked up to him and flicked him on the forehead catching him off guard, before softly saying "I have no intention of stopping you Natsu, in fact I'm coming with you." Natsu's face still held rage but it was no longer directed at Lucy, who turned to the guild and commanded "Gray your coming too, Laxus you're in charge until we return, keep everyone here including Oliver and Soul if they return." The three turned and made for the door only to be stopped yet again, this time by Jura "wait Miss Lucy! I need your answer for the council, if you leave without giving one they may decide to remove your name from the running." Lucy slowly turned giving off an aura so scary it would put Erza's to shame, "my answer..." she said through gritted teeth, "they are so desperate for my answer that they would have me prioritize that over the well being of my guild members?! Well bollocks to them! How dare you and the council assume I would put gaining some title above my guild members!" With a final look of anger and disappointment she turned and ran out of the door with the two boys, leaving a lot of stunned faces behind her.

As they ran through the streets of Death City Lucy took two keys off of her chain and summoned Loke and Virgo. "I have a job for you two" she started "use my magic to summon yourselves to Jennifer's team, once your there assess the situation, if they're under attack then I want you to provide support Loke and you to return and report to me Virgo." Without a hint of hesitation they agreed, but before they disappeared Loke handed Lucy a key "here princess, once you're out of the city use this" he winked at Gray before disappearing in golden light with Virgo, "if that summons what I think it will we'll get there quickly" Gray said with a slight smile on his face. Once they were out of the city Lucy stepped forward and held out the unknown key.

 **I, Lucy Heartfillia, Celestial Mage and barer of the Zodiac keys command thee, in the name of Leo the Lion to pass through the Celestial gate. Unknown Gate Open!**

The magic circle appeared before her and a huge flash of light signalled that something had been summoned. Once the light had faded Lucy was left shocked as she had been expecting to see a new spirit but instead saw a magic mobile. "I thought so" said Gray almost smugly "that is a magic mobile Loke got while he was hiding in Fairy Tail, whenever he wasn't being a ladies' man he was tinkering with this. Trust me it's fast, probably more so now, looks like he's made a few more changes." Gray climbed into the back and Lucy made for the driver's seat when she was stopped by the person she expected least, Natsu. Before she could even say a word Natsu had strapped himself in saying calmly "my magic will get us there faster, I'll be fine I'm doing this for Jennifer after all." Seeing a look of determination on his face Lucy nodded and climbed in next to her boyfriend as Natsu hit the accelerator and the vehicle sped off at insane speeds. In 20 minutes they travelled a distance that would normally take 2 hours by train, against all odds Natsu was perfectly fine aside from a slight green tinge to his cheeks. A flash of light inside the cab signalled Virgo had returned, "it's bad princess" she started with an emotionless face, "The enemy has yet to reveal itself but appears to be airborne and can attack with powerful long range attacks. When we arrived Miss Erza was attempting to get close enough to attack while Miss Evergreen and Miss Maka provide close cover for Miss Wendy as she heals Miss Jennifer who has been wounded fairly badly. Brother Loke has taken up position to provide additional cover for Miss Wendy but the enemy's attacks are too rapid, they're forcing Miss Wendy to keep stopping." Hearing Jennifer's condition Natsu's anger and power exploded, causing their speed to increase by at least 3 times, looking out of the back window Gray was gobsmacked to see that the tires were actually leaving a trail of fire, like they were in a Ghost rider movie. All together it took less than 30 minutes to travel a distance that should have taken over 5 hours. They dismounted and rushed over to Wendy who had just had to stop healing to avoid being hit once again. When Natsu reached her he saw Jennifer laid on the ground, her shirt drenched in blood that was coming from a nasty wound to her stomach, as he stared his breathing became faster and shallower, in his head his emotions went haywire, fear, hate, anger, paranoia, depression, rage, they all hit him at once threatening to send him into a panic attack. He was so focused on Jennifer he never heard Wendy trying to get his attention "...su...Natsu...NATSU!" she shouted snapping his attention to her, "listen to me, I know it's bad but I can save her if I'm not interrupted. All I need you to do is stay with her, she'll need your strength and support." He walked over, dropped to his knees, held her hand and whispered "I'm here Jen and I'm never letting you go." What no one except Gray had noticed was that Lucy was so angry she was literally shaking with rage, "Maka! Ever! Loke! Keep Wendy covered from any enemies getting too close" she began "Gray! Use the strongest barriers you can to shield Wendy, Jen and Natsu. Erza! Fall back and provide backup support for me ONLY if it appears absolutely necessary." As Lucy advanced Erza was about to protest when she noticed that not only was Lucy shaking with rage and giving off an aura of rage and murderous intent, but the ground beneath her feet was cracking, smashing and crumbling from the force of the magic energy she was giving out, she reminded her of former Master Makarov when he was incredibly angry so stepped back and fell into position. "I know you can hear me!" Lucy said loudly to the mysterious enemy "you have injured one of my guild members, the people I consider my FAMILY! And for that crime I shall show no mercy, not even to an old friend!" "hehehe so you worked it out huh, well done" an unknown yet worryingly familiar voice said jokingly as the now familiar enemy landed several metres in front of Lucy, "It's been a while Lucy."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Lucy stood there in front of the enemy, a demonic take over form she recognised all too well. The demon glowed and it's form changed to reveal the person Lucy feared it was, someone she considered one of her closest friends if not her sister, a woman in a long red sun dress with long white hair, Fairy Tail's very own she-Devil Mirajane Straus. "Of all people" Lucy started with disappointment in her voice, "I never expected you to go along with this madness Mira, let alone hurt a member of my guild," "oh it's not madness Lucy" replied Mira sweetly "The new master has simply opened our eyes to the truth. As for her well, she tried to stop me completing my mission and I can't have that," her eyes began to glow red faintly and an evil grin crept across her face, "but now that your here it's different. The master wants you dead Lucy and I'm afraid I'd be happy to oblige." A large black magic circle appeared above her and she began to glow, her form changing, once the light had diminished Lucy saw Mira's most powerful form stood before her, the she-Devil herself, her Satan soul form. "It's only fair I tell you" Mira said, her voice lower and much less sweet than before, "the master has made me far more powerful than I was before hehehe." As she chuckled evilly her normally dark eyes began to glow red and a black aura/energy surrounded her, remembering Natsu's and Jennifer's report the same thing happened to Alzack before he appeared to act possessed. "That's very kind of you Mira" she said sarcastically raising her right hand and summoning Excalibur, "but so am I! And for hurting one of my guild mates, my friends, my FAMILY! I WILL defeat you!" Smirking to herself Mira kicked off from the ground flying backwards into the sky while still facing Lucy, as she rose she raised both hands.

 **Evil Blast!**

A blood red ball of energy formed and fired from her hands and raced towards Lucy who, without using any magic, easily deflected it with Excalibur. "Something doesn't seem right" pondered Cal from within his sword form "I know what you mean," agreed Lucy "Mira was S-Class before and she says she's even stronger now but...these blasts are far weaker than they should be." "Indeed" said Cal as Lucy blocked two more Evil Blasts in rapid succession from somewhere behind a tree, "I sense that these attacks are half hearted, as if she's holding back but not intentionally." Hearing their conversation Mira appeared from behind the trees hovering in mid air, "holding back am I? Try this!" She raised both hands again, her eyes glowed solid red and a black magic circle formed before her.

 **Evil Blast Bullets**

Numerous bullet sized Evil Blasts fried from the circle and raced towards Lucy, who raised her Star Force Shield just before the first struck. After the first few of the continuously firing shots impacted her shield Lucy was glad she used it, the strain and drain on her magic energy telling her that each blast was at least twice as powerful, if not more, than their larger counter part. "Yeah this is definitely S-Class level strength magic" said Lucy as the barrage continued, "It seams the more her eyes glow the stronger her attacks become" replied Cal. Lucy pondered for a moment before saying "I think Natsu and Jennifer were right, from the reports about Alzack and what we're seeing now it definitely sounds like some sort of possession, hmm...I think I know how to test it too." She readied herself to attack knowing full well if she timed it wrong she'd take a lot of damage. Picking the perfect moment she dropped her shield, rolled to the left and cast.

 **Regal Slicer**

The yellow magic raced towards Mira cutting through the remaining blast bullets, with a simple mid air roll Mira dodged the slicer but as she turned to face Lucy once again she heard;

 **Starlight Cannon**

By the time Mira had turned enough to see there was no more time to dodge the silvery starlight. The spell impacted around Mira's stomach but instead of exploding it appeared to be struggling to reach her as if something was blocking it, looking closely Lucy noticed Mira's eyes were no longer glowing as bright as they were but were much dimmer and the black energy was pooling together acting like a shield of sorts. "Hmm no movement from Mira at all" Lucy said so only Cal could hear her, "that clinches it, it's that black stuff that's controlling her, while it's influencing her actions it makes her stronger but if it needs to act independently and asserts less control her eyes glow less and she has less freedom of movement." "An excellent deduction my lady" replied Cal "but I too have made a discovery, while that energy was acting independently I was able to sense it more clearly. It is indeed a form of corruption as we feared but it's artificial, someone put it within her and appears to be controlling her through it, if we could find a way to remove it she should return to normal." As they spoke the black energy had deflected the Starlight Cannon and had retreated back into Mira.

 **Evil Spark**

Mira sent bolts of black lightning at Lucy who had to jump to the side in order to dodge, she dodged bolt after bolt until one hit her in the leg, sending the black lightning coursing through her painfully and momentarily stopping her from moving. But a moment was all Mira needed, she raised one hand towards the sky, her eyes glowed even more and the black energy became so abundant that it made her look darker, like she was standing in the shadow of a huge object. Then she spoke and like Alzack her normal voice was combined with a much darker, much more evil voice, " **and now oh thorn in my side, it is time to end this** " a large pitch black magic circle appeared in the sky above Mira.

 **Demon Hellfire Immolation**

Black flames that gave off a dangerously powerful and evil feeling formed beneath the magic circle into a large ball, Mira dropped her arm to point at Lucy and the flaming inferno launched towards her. Lucy could tell from the feeling she was getting that if that spell hit it was all over for her so she did something she had never done before and combined Cal's magic with her own.

 **King's Starforce Shield**

The shield that formed had swirls of yellow and silver running through it and was far stronger than either could be on their own, which was good because when Mira's spell hit the sheer power it held nearly broke straight through but then the fireball exploded. Lucy was completely blocked from view by the powerful blast, which nearly smashed though Gray's strongest barrier even though it was nowhere near the flames. The being controlling Mira chuckled to itself thinking that there was no possibility that Lucy could've survived such a spell, a spell that was so dark it was said to have been created in hell itself, the flames subsided leaving only a cloud of dust and smoke left over from the explosion. Then from the centre of the could Mira heard something that should have been completely impossible,

 **Celestial Radiance**

The solar blast hit Mira dead on causing the entity to scream like it's very soul was on fire, Lucy panted having used over half her total magic energy to maintain that shield "wow...its...really...screaming...huh" she managed to get out while trying to catch her breath, "wait" said Cal with a hint of realization in his voice "that's the answer, whatever it is it must be completely dark if not demonic, meaning it is highly susceptible to light and holy magics. My lady many of your spells, especially your more powerful ones fall under that category, we have a chance but it would require you to use...that spell," "you can't be serious!" reacted Lucy with astonishment "that spell is a last resort! I mean just casting it renders one of my zodiac keys completely inert for a full 96 hours! Plus the fact that the spell itself is so dam powerful it won't just kill her it'll vaporise her!" "Only if you let the spell control you not the other way around" said Cal "you must concentrate, use your feelings of friendship and kinship with her to focus the magic so that only the other entity is destroyed," I'm..." Lucy whispered with fear in her voice "I'm not sure I can..." "yes you can!" Cal exclaimed causing Lucy to jump "I believe in you my lady, as does Gray, Natsu, Wendy AND the entire guild!" Before anymore could be said Mira flew back into view but was no longer smirking, her face now held fury and pain and her hand was holding the side of her head like she had a headache. " **For that I will...I...ugh...I will...** " the entity said as the pain on her face rapidly increased to the point where her other hand was now also on her head when suddenly Lucy heard something she wasn't expecting "Lucy listen to me!" it was the real Mira's voice, "I can't hold it back for long, however your planning on killing me do it now before I lose control! And know that I bear you no ill will, I will always think of you as my precious sister." Tears began to well up behind Lucy's eyes and a new sense of confidence made itself known within her, she took Torus' key from her key ring, whispered sorry to both Mira and Torus, but the other being had other ideas " **No! This body is mine! I don't know how your still there Mira but I shall not die!** " It made to fly away but a spell came from behind Lucy that she wasn't expecting.

 **Storm Dragon's Storm Chains**

Turning to see Jennifer leaning against Natsu Lucy couldn't have been happier "Now Lucy!" Jennifer shouted "save your friend!" Lucy turned again to face Mira who was now immobilized by Jennifer's chains " **No! This cannot be!** " the entity shouted "Yes...it can" Lucy replied in a low voice, she pointed Torus' key at Mira, gathered as much magic energy as she could, let every last feeling she had for Mira focus and direct the magic and unleashed a spell that was so powerful it scared even her.

 **Celestial Secret art: Divine Radiance of the Zodiac**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

 _*Recap*_

 _ **Celestial Secret Art: Divine Radiance of the Zodiac**_

 _*end recap*_

A large Golden magic circle formed around Torus' key that seemed to shine like the heavens, or so Gray thought anyway. Releasing the key from her hand Lucy took a step back while it remained stationary, as if still being held by some invisible force, around it in a triangular formation formed three balls of golden flame like energy that began to orbit the key in a clock-wise direction. The other mages stood in shock and awe as they sensed that each of the orbiting fires packed roughly twice the magical energy / power as Lucy's Celestial Radiance, meaning that in theory this spell would be roughly six times as strong, which was a thought that scared them all. As they watched, energy from the orbiting spheres began to siphon off into the key, like gas caught in a vacuum, the more energy transferred the brighter the key shone until all three spheres were completely absorbed and the key shone brighter than any star in the night sky. Lucy held up both palms towards her target, her fingers spread out wide and her thumbs overlapping before speaking one final word..."shine!" The moment she spoke a huge beam of unimaginably intense light and power erupted from the key and magic circle, engulfing the immobile Mira completely in less than a second, the air pressure created by the spells backlash nearly sending the other mages flying as they braced themselves while listening to the trees groan and crack. Within the beam the black energy entity screamed in pain as the light engulfed it " **aaahhh! This isn't over! You may have defeated this servant but others will descend upon you and claim your souls for me! And once they do...I shall...become...unstoppable...HAHAHAHAH...A..."** It screamed it's final words as the last of the black energy dissolved into oblivion within the light. A few seconds later the spell ended and the light faded to nothing, Torus' key, which was now a lifeless grey colour, landed in Lucy's hand before she fell to her knees in pure exhaustion. "Lucy!" Gray shouted as he ran to the woman he loved as the others marvelled at their surroundings, everything from the trees to the grass bore damage from the spell, ranging from slight charring to 'burnt to ash' and much of the ground had been turned to glass. When Gray got to Lucy he slid to the ground and held her close to him supporting her, but before he could speak there was a small bang as something impacted the floor, all the mages snapped out of their daze to find out the source of the impact, which turned out to be who they least expected, Mira's unconscious body. "Gray..." Lucy struggled to speak, "promise me...you'll take Mira...back to the guild...and get Stein...and Lord Death...to check her over..." Without another word darkness began to engulf her vision and she lost consciousness, her body going limp in Gray's arms, "I promise Luce, I promise" replied Gray with a loving yet worried voice.

Opening her eyes a bit too quickly the sudden onslaught of light caused Lucy to squeeze her eyes shut to try and stop the stinging, but when she tried to lift her hand to her eyes she found it was stuck under something that was putting a small pressure on her stomach. Slowly she opened her eyes, becoming accustomed to the light and looked down, there she found Gray, he was sat in a chair next to the bed she was in and had clearly fallen asleep holding her hand as both hers and his were on top of the covers, on her stomach under his head. Noticing the stubble on his chin she deduced that she had been out for at least a day if not longer and, judging from the bags under Gray's eyes, he hadn't been sleeping well. With great difficulty she looked around what little of the room she could without waking Gray to find she was in Fairy Eater's infirmary, which was confirmed when she saw Wendy tiding up some medical supplies. Turning around to see Lucy awake Wendy let out a squeal of joy that made Gray wake up with a jump, "Wendy you scared the hell out of me!" Gray said with a slight chuckle, "what were you squealing at anyway?" She pointed next to Gray, it wasn't until he followed Wendy's finger that he saw Lucy leaning on her elbows looking at him with a loving smile on her face. "Lucy?...LUCY!" he exclaimed with relief practically jumping on her and pulling her into a big hug, "I'm alright love really" Lucy said "just a little tired and looking forward to using you as my personal teddy bear in my own bed." Smiling she stroked his hair as he clung on to her for dear life, she stopped for a moment when she thought she felt him tremble like he was trying to hold back tears but as it only lasted for a second she thought she had imagined it. Eventually the two broke apart, if only for a moment before becoming locked in a deep kiss, once they broke apart again Lucy got out of bed and looked around finding Mira laid unconscious in another bed. "Did you manage to get her checked out?" she asked Gray "yeah" he replied, "both Lord Death and Stein checked her ever extensively and concluded that your spell completely purified her of any corruption, apparently she was able to fight it off because she was such a strong take over mage. Stein said she must had separated and segregated part of her mind when she felt...whoever trying to take over her body, but re-surfacing to help you cost her a huge amount of magical and physical energy, hence why she still out." It was a lot to take in, especially after just waking up "huh, and how long have we been out?" she asked, the worry crept back into Gray's eyes before he answered in a slightly shaky voice "...3 days...", "3 days!?" Lucy said surprised "I must've used more energy that I thought, a good night's sleep should do me good and you too," she looked to Gray "I can tell you've not been sleeping have you?" with a yawn he shook his head, "no he hasn't" replied Wendy in his place "he hasn't left your side for more than a few minutes." Lucy smiled and giggled slightly noticing the clock on the wall that showed it was a little before mid-night, taking Gray's hand Lucy led him towards the door "come on, I think we both need the sleep, and so do you Wendy!" she turned to the young dragon slayer "I can tell your tired, if anyone is still awake you can tell them I woke up but have gone for some rest, after that straight to bed with you." The tone she used was motherly as, truth be told, she had always thought of herself as a surrogate mother to Wendy, who was so pleased she ran over and hugged Lucy before heading out the doors, thinking that she wished Lucy really was her mother. Arriving in Lucy's room the two mages got ready for bed, which in Gray's case consisted of him stripping completely, and sat on the bed. Lucy could tell something was wrong. Especially when she looked into his eyes and saw he was repressing his emotions, "Hey what's wrong?" she asked caringly "wrong? Erm...nothing...nothing I'm fine" Gray replied unconvincingly, he trembled again which Lucy saw clearly this time, she brought him into a comforting hug and whispered "it's alright, I'm here you don't have to hold it back anymore," responding to her words he made the hug tighter, buried his head into her shoulder and started to shake slightly, when Lucy found her night shirt becoming wet on the shoulder she realised he was crying, something she had only ever seen him do once. "W-W-WWhen w-we brought you back t-to the g-guild Wendy didn't have enough energy to heal you" Gray said through the tears, "It scared me Luce, I was terrified there was something wrong and you weren't going to wake up, that you were gonna leave me alone like Ur. I mean you were barely breathing, in fact I'm pretty sure you stopped a couple of times, I...I don't want to lose you Lucy, I won't! I love you too much for that." She knew why he had been holding it in, everyone always thought that, aside from anger, he didn't really have too many feelings being an ice mage, she was so very happy that he could open up to her. She brought him out of the hug and put her hands on his cheeks pulling him up to her face, his eyes were very red and tears were flooding out, "I'm not going anywhere Gray I promise, after all I can't leave the man my heart belongs to behind now can I?" She brought him into a long tender kiss, which made him feel better as he nodded in agreement when they broke apart. Deciding it was time for bed Gray climbed under the sheets to wait for Lucy to snuggle in next to him, feeling the wet patch on her shoulder Lucy decided she couldn't wear that shirt to bed so removed it and tossed it to the ground, revealing her bare chest to Gray, an act that would normally have sent him into a lust fuelled frenzy but tonight he just wanted to snuggle up and sleep. This is exactly what happened a few moments later when Lucy climbed in and they both drifted off to sleep with Lucy cuddled up in Gray's arms.

The next morning Lucy woke to find her room bathed in sun light, the clock next to the bed reading 07:08am. Slowly and carefully she untangled herself from Gray and made her way to the bathroom, instantly missing Gray's warmth and touch, to have a shower and let Gray catch up on some of the sleep he had missed. The hot water felt amazing on her still slightly aching muscles, plus she hadn't had a shower since before the fight with Mira so it was nice to fell clean again. After drying herself off with a particularly fluffy towel she left the bathroom and sat at a small desk with a mirror, not even bothering to cover her naked form, and began to comb and straighten her hair. Being rather adept at this procedure it only took a minute or two before she was done and putting down the straightners, which is when she saw something on her desk that made her smile, it was her keys and purse in the middle of a circle of runes with a note next to it reading;

 _Lady Master_

 _If you are reading this then I hope you have recovered well. As I write this you are still residing in the infirmary and we were unsure what to do with your valuables, as such I thought it prudent to place them within an enchantment that will allow only you to retrieve them. I truly hope you have made or will make a full recovery Lady Master as does the rest of the Guild._

 _Yours Faithfully, Freed Justine._

She giggled slightly and made a mental note to remind Freed to call her Lucy before retrieving her keys, causing the runes to fade and disappear. It was then that her smile dissipated and was replaced by a look of worry and guilt, holding up Torus' key she found that much of it's golden colour had returned but there was still patches of lifeless Gray making the key unusable, but to make matters worse Lucy knew that it would take Torus months if not longer to recover fully as the spell forced him to expel nearly all his own spiritual and physical energy, which to a spirit is like life force, hence why the spell was a last resort and could only be used with a willing member of the Zodiac. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she jumped when a pair of strong arms wrapped around her torso, making her moan slightly with pleasure as she practically melted onto the embrace. "You're meant to be sleeping mister" she said as she rose from the chair and wrapped her arms around gray's neck, "how could I sleep when you're awake" he replied with a husky voice that made Lucy excited, "besides, I saw that look Luce, I researched that spell before you woke and I know that it was Torus' choice as much as yours so don't beat yourself up okay?" She nodded in agreement with a small tear forming in her eye before noticing that she wasn't the only one excited, she rubbed her thigh against a certain part of Gray's anatomy gaining the moan she was hoping for, leaning in close and allowing her bare chest to rub against his she whispered in his ear "I think someone deserves a reward for looking after me" a lust filled smile broke across her face as she led Gray to the bed, pushing him onto it and climbing on top of him capturing his lips with hers, the two allowing their passions to run rampant.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Completely satisfied and with sweat glistening on their naked forms the two love birds snuggled up to one another on the bed having finished their 'early morning activities'. Looking over to the clock on the wall Lucy saw it was nearly 10am and decided it was about time to make an appearance down stairs, reluctantly the two separated, got a quick wash, put on some clothes and left their room. They were only about half way down the first set of stairs when they heard an explosion coming from the front doors causing them to practically jump down the remaining flights of stairs, which let them arrive at the last few steps just as Oliver launched an attack at the wizard saint Jura.

 **Arctic Dragon's Glacial Fist**

"ENOUGH!" Lucy screamed causing the guild to flinch and Oliver to freeze in his tracks **(A/N no pun intended lol)** and turn to watch in fear as Lucy descended the last few steps with an extremely stern look on her face and an aura of anger that would make dragon kings quake in terror. "There had better be a dammed good explanation for this" she said intimidatingly, "if you would permit me I can explain Master Heartfillia" Jura said before Oliver had the chance, her eyes flicked to Jura and she nodded silently "well my lady let me first say that Mister Revan's actions are completely justified I assure you" he began, "after our verbal altercation the guild asked me to remain as they discussed any restrictions that should be levied against me, which I was more than happy with as I needed to contemplate what I had done. During their deliberations Mister Revan and Mister Eater returned from their mission and were brought up to speed. After becoming understandably angry Mister Revan demanded that I be forbidden from entering this guild again, having realized that what I said to you was un-forgivable asked that his wish be granted, acting Master Laxus was displeased that such a decision had to be made but agreed. Mister Revan's actions a few moments ago were the result of me coming here after taking voluntary banishment, he must have seen it as a further betrayal and becoming understandably angry." "I see" said Lucy sighing as she did, "and would I be correct in assuming your return was due to the projection of the gentleman behind you?" Because of Oliver's reaction most of the guild hadn't even noticed the man a few paces behind Jura but even those that had hadn't noticed he was a projection "an excellent deduction" the man said as his projection stepped forward, "my name is Varris, Malachi Varris and I am a member of the magic council member," the realization that a magic council member stood before them stunned most of the guild but didn't faze Lucy. "You see" Varris continued "I asked Jura as a personal favour to introduce me to yourself and to Mr Revan as we have made our final decision. Fairy Eater Guild Master Lucy Heartfillia, the magic council had received several glowing commendations about you from Lord Death, Blue Pegasus Guild Master Bob, Quattro Cerberus Guild Master Goldmine, multiple members of your own guild AND the Celestial Spirit King himself. We were also deeply impressed by the reports of the recent incident that showed the sheer level of skill, power and determination you possess, especially when it comes to saving your comrades." "Even those who don't seem like it" a voice shouted from the infirmary door way, everyone turned to find Mirajane Strauss stood there with a warm smile on her face, "Lucy risked her own life to not only save Natsu's mate from a truly disgusting monster, namely myself, but to save me from whatever held my mind and soul, though my opinion may not be worth much anymore I truly believe that Lucy is a true saint." Looking at the others she found Natsu staring at her with anger in his eyes, though what she didn't know is that Natsu's anger wasn't for what she thought it was. Oblivious to the tension between Natsu and Mira, Varris turned back to Lucy and continued "see, even a former enemy is giving you high praise, the council's decision is to offer you, Lucy Heartfillia, the title of 'Fifth Wizard Saint', do you accept?" Lucy's mind was racing, so much had happened so quickly, becoming S-Class, becoming Guild Master, confessing to Gray, recovering Mira and now an offer of Wizard Saint, with pride welling up in her chest there was only one thing to be said, "It would be my honour to accept the tittle."

Needless to say after Lucy's acceptance the guild exploded into cheers and drinking with Lucy receiving a storm of congratulations including a rather heated hug and kiss from Gray that rather embarrassed a certain young Sky Dragon Slayer, even Jura was completely forgiven and asked to stay. Varris' projection faded after saying he'd set things in motion leaving everyone celebrating except Mira, seeing everyone so happy made the guilt in her heart burn like acid in her blood. Quietly she tried to make her way back to the infirmary only to be stopped by a few words "running away won't help ya know," she turned and answered "I know Laxus but how can I not? It wasn't long ago that I was trying to KILL Natsu's mate, I have no right to be present for a celebration." "BULL!" Laxus exclaimed catching Mira by surprise, "Jennifer is a smart and caring person that I happen to know has forgiven you completely since your body was being controlled, as for flame brain I can tell by looking he's angry for the same reason I am, how dare you? HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF A MONSTER!? Mira you are the kindest soul I have ever met, you are beautiful inside and out! If I ever heard someone call you monster I'd shock them until they were nothing but ash and Natsu would be right behind me with flames ready," "Dam right I would!" Natsu shouted over. It was at this point Mira realized the room was silent and everyone was looking, "look around Mira, can you see even the slightest hint of anger? Or hate?" She looked around expecting to see looks of vengeance but instead she found nothing but caring smiles, even the people she didn't know, Jennifer rose from her seat and looked Mira in the eyes "Mira out of all the people here me and Natsu are the ones who have the right to hate you….and we don't! Not even slightly. I know that it wasn't you in control and that's why I won't forgive you because you haven't done anything! So there's nothing to forgive! If you'd let me though I would like to be your friend." Barely able to process the whole situation Mira turned back to Laxus and what she saw threw her for 6, Laxus Drayer, the mountain of muscles (as she called him) who never showed emotion had tears in his eyes, "Mira you just don't get how much I..WE care about you! Now promise me, promise you'll never call yourself a monster again" "Laxus I…" "PROMISE!" Mira's heart melted into a puddle on the floor, she had never seen Laxus show this much care for anyone, she couldn't help but wonder if there was something else behind his words, "I promise Laxus" she said with a warm and genuine smile on her face that seemed to calm. Suddenly she was overcome by an incredible sense of fatigue, her vision became blurry and her legs gave out entirely, but the cold floor never came as she was caught by someone and she didn't even need to look who it was, judging from the incredible muscles that she could feel all around she knew Laxus had caught her. Opening her eyes again and allowing her vision to sort itself out she came face to face with an extremely worried Laxus and a relieved looking Wendy, "she'll be fine, her body is still recuperating, big bro take her back to her hospital bed and give her some of the bright blue medicine in the middle cupboard." Laxus nodded and picked Mira up bridal style causing her to blush like crazy and carried her towards the infirmary, listening to the sounds of the celebration as they travelled. He followed Wendy's instructions and got the medicine for Mira before turning to leave and let Mira have some privacy. "Laxus wait" said Mira timidly causing Laxus to turn, "please…..please don't leave me alone…." Laxus was confused but turned back "yeah sure but…why? It's not like anyone here wants to hurt you ya know?" Mira sat up in the bed, brought her knees to her chest and put her head between them. "Because…." She started with a stutter "because I'm afraid alright, I'm afraid of being alone again" a look of confusion broke across Laxus' face "again? I don't get it? When were you before?" She looked at him with tears beginning to form in her eyes "when…when I was possessed….you see while that….thing was controlling me my mind was trapped within my own head, it was like I was watching a movie in 4D, I could see and feel anything that happened but I had absolutely no imput at all. I was all alone in a dark corner of my own mind with no way of communicating with anyone but able to feel all the blood on my hands as my body hurt, tortured and KILLED innocent people….." Tears fell from her eyes like a river and Laxus reacted without thinking, he ran over and enveloped Mira in the most comforting hug he could, "it's alright" he whispered in her ear "I'm right here, I won't go anywhere I promise, I'll never let you be alone again and I'll help you get through this I promise." Mira practically melted into the hug and continued to cry and cry until she cried herself to sleep in Laxus' arms, who simply laid down on the bed so they'd both be comfortable and covered her with his fur covered coat slowly slipping into the grip of sleep himself.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

A little over a year has passed since Mira was recovered by Fairy Eater. During those months Lucy was officially recognised as a Wizard Saint, Oliver and Jennifer kept their promises and began to train Natsu and Gray, who had become much more powerful, then there was Mira, after a small interview with the Magic Council she was cleared of any and all charges and suspicions but was ordered to join Fairy Eater to ensure her own wellbeing.

 **-Fairy Eater bar area-**

Mira was sat at a table with a chocolate milkshake in her hand staring up at the door to Master Lucy's office, "wow" she started "Lucy and Lord Death have been in there with councilman Varris for what? 2 days now? I wonder what they're talking about." Laxus who was sat next to her looked over to her "Fairy Tail probably" he replied, over the last 11 months he had kept his word and only left her side for as little time as possible, "I mean they did just up and disappear just after we got you back, those old farts on the council must be pulling out what little hair they have left." As he finished the guild doors opened as Gray and Oliver entered having finished their daily training, followed about 10 minutes later by Natsu and Jennifer. As the couple entered they looked around to find all the guilds members were there drinking and laughing, "huh everyone's here, how come no one's on a job?" Natsu asked as Happy landed lazily on his shoulder, "they're not allowed" replied Gray as he handed the couple the drinks he and Oliver had gotten for them, "Lucy's suspended all missions for some reason and she won't tell me why. Though she does get a somewhat devious smile on her face when I mention it." As they talked no one noticed Lucy sitting on the balcony with said devious smile across her face. Bringing two fingers to her mouth she let out a loud whistle to get everyone's attention, "alright everyone listen up" she began "as I'm sure you remember in a few days time it will be the 1 year anniversary of the day we saved Mira and Fairy Tail disappeared. During this last year you've all trained hard for the day we fight all out against Fairy Tail to free them from whoever now controls them and I cannot ignore how much stronger you've all gotten, as such in three days time, on the anniversary of Mira's return, Fairy Eater shall hold our first S-Class exams." Everyone's faces lit up with excitement and the sight of everyone so fired up brought a tear to Lucy's eye, "alright" she continued "if I call your name then step forward: Gajeel, Mira, Natsu, Gray, Kid and Stein" they all stepped forward, "you have all been chosen as I believe you are all truly worthy, now there is one more thing you need to know. Maka and Kid you will working alongside your weapon partners, they may act in human or weapon form as you see fit, Gajeel and Natsu you will be working alongside your exceeds, Stein I have been informed by Lord Death that you have a weapon partner of your own among his staff, would you like us to contact him?" "I do indeed have a partner" replied Stein, "his name is Spirit and he is one of Lord Death's 'Death Scythes', his role is to protect Death Academy and fight alongside Lord Death if needed so I cannot call him away from that. However if Maka would permit me to borrow a scythe I believe that any disadvantage I would have would be lessened if not erased entirely." Maka composed herself for a moment having flinched at the mention of the name Spirit before agreeing to loan Stein a scythe. "Good" began Lucy "which leaves only you Gray love, is there anyone you'd like to partner with? The only conditions are they must be one of us or someone with a close connection with this guild and it can't be one of the S-Class." Gray thought for a moment, remembering back to the old days in Fairy Tail and after careful deliberation there was only one name that came to mind, "Luce" he started "back in the old days there was someone who promised to partner with me for S-Class trials but now only you could make that possible." Lucy was confused by Gray's somewhat cryptic answer until she remembered the stories people used to tell her about the old days at Fairy Tail, she out her hand on one of her keys and closed her eyes for a moment before smiling and opening them, "looks like you get your wish." A golden light formed next to Gray and from out of it stepped Loki "well it's about time man" he said as he lent on Gray's shoulder, "Lucy has already given her consent so we're good to go, it'll be just like old times….just with less picking up girls for me." "Well that's it" Lucy said as she ended the 'meeting' "all participants take the next two days to rest as you'll need your bodies and minds in peak form for these trials." Everyone proceeded to cheer and congratulate all the participants "I'm all fired up now!" exclaimed Natsu "I'm finally gonna be S-Class!" "Yeah right it's gonna be me!" replied Gray with a smirk, "Dream on ice princess! Don't think I'm gonna let you cheat your way through just cos your Lucy's boy toy" Natsu shouted with a devious smile of his own showing how much he wanted to rile Gray up. Oblivious to this Gray let his anger rise "what was that charcoal balls!?" Before Natsu could answer he was struck in the chest by a small ball of silvery magic that forced him down with great force, unsurprisingly it turned out to be Lucy that fired it as she descended the stairs, her right eye twitching out of annoyance. When the dust from the blast cleared they found Natsu was in the centre of a foot deep crater, Jennifer stepped into it to check if he was still alive "ya know love, if you want to push Gray's buttons ya might want to make sure the master isn't around or she might just kill you next time" she said giggling. Thanks to her dragon hearing she was able to make out the pained mumbles that was Natsu's reply, she turned to Lucy and said while trying to contain her giggles "he's saying he's very sorry repeatedly, also "ow ow ow" repeatedly and something about you being scarier than Erza without Strawberry cake." Hearing this Lucy stopped in her tracks, covered her mouth quickly with her hands and began to shake strangely, after a few seconds she could no longer contain it and burst out in a fit of laughter along with several other members of the guild including Erza herself.

Excusing herself and Natsu from the celebration that was now back in full swing, Jennifer carried Natsu, with Happy's help, back to the little house they now shared about 10 minutes away from the guild. Having re-gained enough composure to walk on his own just as they arrived Natsu produced they keys from his pocket and unlocked the door, before making straight for their comfortable sofa. "Wow Lucy's really scary, you ok Natsu?" Happy asked as he flew over to the chair next to the sofa, "yea I'm ok little buddy" Natsu replied "but man I forgot how much of a punch Lucy packs." Still struggling to contain her giggles Jennifer leaned on the door frame and said "well duh! She's a Wizard Saint love! They wouldn't have given her the tittle if she was weak would they?" Before his face was able to reveal how dumfounded he was by the obvious realisation Jennifer grabbed his hand, pulled him up gently and spoke softly "come on pyro boy, you've got a big trial coming up so let get you to bed," from next to them came a soft yawn from the little blue exceed, "Looks like someone else is a bit tired too" Natsu said while scratching Happy's head, receiving a purr of contentment in return. Giving off another yawn Happy summoned his wings and slowly flew towards the hammock he got Natsu to set up in their living room saying "G'night Natsu, G'night Jennifer" as he did, "Good night Happy" they both replied as they ascended the stairs to their room hand in hand. Upon entering their bedroom Natsu removed his scarf and waistcoat and sat on the edge of their king sized bed, Jennifer gave him a small peck on the cheek and retreated into their en suite bathroom and closed the door to have a quick shower before bed. Not long after Natsu heard the sound of the water in the shower, he rose from his position and went over to the small closet that had claimed for himself (as Jennifer had so many clothes she needed a room all to herself to store them all), crouching he moved the carpet and moved a small square piece of the floor boards to reveal a small compartment containing a small black wooden box. Natsu took the box out and opened it, within were numerous photos of Fairy Tail, Team Natsu, the other Fairy Tail members from before they started becoming nasty, Fairy eater, Fairy Eater's members and of course Natsu and Jennifer. There were also several items Natsu had received as a reward for jobs and many other items that Natsu held dear to him, one item in particular caught his attention as he picked it up. It was a small blue velvet ring box, opening it his eyes were met with the sight of a platinum ring with a large ruby set perfectly in the centre surrounded his small, perfectly cut diamonds and flanked either side by a sapphire. As he gazed at the ruby he could see that within the ruby was swirling energy that looked an eternal flame caught in perfect red glass, "soon" he quietly said out loud "the time will come soon," he closed the ring box and placed it carefully back into the box of memories before replacing it in the compartment it came from and re-covering it. A little while later Jennifer left the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around her incredible figure, allowing the towel to pool at her feet she stood before Natsu completely naked causing him to stare wide eyed and open mouthed like a teenager looking at their first naked woman. "Well I guess you like what you see huh pyro boy?" she asked seductively, "erm….I….well…..I….yes….yes…just yes!" Natsu replied with a stutter, his mind so overcome with primal desire that he could barely string two words together. She sashayed over to him and locked her lips with him breaking every last ounce of control he had left over his primal dragon instincts, within seconds his remaining clothes were discarded on the floor of their room and the two were engaged in truly passionate love making that, thanks to both of their incredible dragon stamina's, promised to last long into the night.

Meanwhile, a couple of towns away from Death City, which given its location is many miles away, a dark figure was kneeling on a roof. Suddenly he vanished, appearing a few roofs away a moment later before vanishing again and appearing in the shadows of an alleyway a little further away. "Hmm" he whispered seemingly to himself, "a Fairy Tailer here and him of all people too, this could get interesting. We may have to tell Lord Death about this, his new friends might be getting a visitor soon," "right" said a female voice from somewhere, "but what should we do now? Should we get his attention or just observe?" "Not long ago I would've said let him know we're here straight away, but for now let's stick to the shadows and keep an eye on our newest guest." Shifting slightly so that he could get a slightly better view of his target the dark figure's right arm entered into a patch of light revealing a muscular arm with a large pale 5 point star shaped mark at the very top just before the shoulder. Covering his hand was a dark grey / black glove with a white stripe could across the top of his hand with a small star in the centre of the stripe. Then, within the blink of an eye, the figure was gone, leaving no trace that he had ever been there in the first place.


End file.
